Netanyahu formally indicted in court on corruption charges

Israeli PM withdrew his bid for immunity on Tuesday, hours before Knesset due to hold debate.6 hours ago

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been formally indicted in court on corruption charges after he withdrew his request for parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

Netanyahu was in Washington for meetings with US President Donald Trump ahead of the release of Trump’s long-delayed US-Israeli “peace” plan for the Middle East when Israel’s attorney-general filed the charges in a Jerusalem court on Tuesday.

Earlier, Netanyahu said he was withdrawing his bid for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on corruption charges, paving the way for a trial to begin.

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister issued a statement on Facebook on Tuesday, saying the immunity proceedings in parliament would have been a “circus” and he did not want to take part in a “dirty game”.

“I informed the Knesset speaker that I am withdrawing my immunity request,” Netanyahu said.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, had been set to convene to discuss the formation of a committee to debate the prime minister’s request for immunity from prosecution on Tuesday.

The Knesset was widely expected to reject the request, which would have dealt Netanyahu a blow ahead of a parliamentary election scheduled for March 2 – the third national vote in less than a year. Netanyahu’s Likud party was planning to boycott the session.

His retraction paves the way for legal proceedings against him to go forward. A trial could take months or years and the 70-year-old leader is under no legal obligation to resign.

Netanyahu was indicted in November on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust over allegations that he granted state favours worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israeli media barons in return for gifts and favourable coverage.

He denies any wrongdoing, saying he is the victim of a witch hunt by the media and the political left aiming to remove a popular right-wing leader.

The prime minister’s political opponents made his legal troubles a focus of their campaigns in the previous two elections last year.

‘Netanyahu hates to be the loser’

The prime minister’s chief rival, Benny Gantz, who leads the Blue and White alliance, said in a statement: “Netanyahu is going to trial – we must go forward.”

“Nobody could run a country and simultaneously manage three serious criminal charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust,” he added.

Akiva Eldar, an Israeli columnist at Al-Monitor, said Netanyahu had no choice but to withdraw his immunity request as he lacked sufficient support in parliament.

“Netanyahu hates to be the loser. He wanted the immunity and he wasn’t able to get it. He stood no chance. He doesn’t have a majority in the Knesset to get the immunity,” Eldar said.

The Knesset was still expected to assemble despite Netanyahu’s withdrawal of his request to form the committee, which will also address former welfare minister Haim Katz’s request for immunity from prosecution in his own corruption cases.

Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List of Arab parties in the Israeli parliament, said “the path to trial is paved and no diplomatic public relations stunt in the world” would prevent him from being brought to justice.

Netanyahu could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of bribery and a maximum three-year term for fraud and breach of trust.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

• Israel
• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Middle East

Palestinians reject Trump’s Middle East proposal as a ‘conspiracy’ that ‘will not pass’.28 Jan 2020 20:00 GMT

US President Donald Trump unveiled his long-delayed Middle East plan on Tuesday – a proposal Palestinian leaders called a “conspiracy” that “will not pass”. 

“Today Israel has taken a giant step towards peace,” Trump said as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood by his side. 

“My vision presents a win-win solution for both sides,” he said, adding that Israeli leaders have said they will endorse the proposal.

More:

• Interactive – Israel’s settlements: Over 50 years of land theft explained
• The architects behind the US plan
• Trump’s US-Israeli plan announcement: Why now?

Before the proposal was announced, Palestinians called it dead on arrival, saying it was an attempt to “finish off” the Palestinian cause. 

Following Trump’s announcement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said “a thousands no’s” to the plan. 

Netanyahu meanwhile said it was a “historic day” and thanked Trump for his proposal. He said if Palestinians agree to the plan, Israel will be willing to negotiate “right away”. 

Jerusalem ‘undivided capital’

Trump’s initiative, whose principal author is his son-in-law Jared Kushner, follows a long line of efforts to resolve one of the world’s most intractable issues. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

Palestinians have refused to engage the Trump administration and denounced its first stage – a $50bn economic revival plan announced last June.

The 50-page political outline recognises Israeli sovereignty over major illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, something to which the Palestinians will almost certainly object. Trump said Israel would be granted security control of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. 

The plan calls for a four-year freeze in new Israeli settlement construction, during which time details of a comprehensive agreement would be negotiated, according to the Trump administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Trump’s announcement. However, it was not immediately clear if the freeze could be extended if a final deal is not concluded in the four years.

The officials added that the plan calls for the creation of the State of Palestine. It was previously unclear whether the plan would abandon the two-state solution. 

Trump said Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided capital”. But he also said under the plan, “eastern Jerusalem” would serve as a capital of a State of Palestine. He did not elaborate on what he meant by eastern Jerusalem. 

Trump had already recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city. 

Palestinians take part in a protest against the US Middle East peace plan, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Responding to the plan, Abbas said “Jerusalem is not for sale, all our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain”. 

Sami Abu Zhuri, a Hamas official, said Trump’s statement was “aggressive and will spark a lot of anger”. 

“Trump’s statement about Jerusalem is nonsense and Jerusalem will always be the land of the Palestinians,” he told Reuters news agency. “The Palestinians will confront this deal and Jerusalem will remain a Palestinian land.”

Earlier on Tuesday, thousands of Palestinians rallied in the besieged Gaza Strip to protest the expected plan. 

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said the “the devil is not in the detail in this case”. 

“The devil is in the headlines,” Bishara said. “What we have here is a very clever, devilish clever, repackaging of the chronic problems in Israel and Palestine and promoting them as solutions.”

Kushner told Al Jazeera that the US believes this is “the last chance for the Palestinians to have a state”. 

“It’s time [for Palestinians] to let go of past fairy tales that quite frankly will never happen,” he added. 

Honest broker?

Palestinians have previously said the United States cannot be an honest broker for peace in the region, accusing it of pro-Israel bias. 

In addition to moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, the Trump administration has also slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Israel-occupied Golan Heights. 

The Trump administration in November reversed decades of US policy when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer regarded Israeli settlements on occupied West Bank land as inconsistent with international law.

The plan comes as Trump and Netanyahu face political issues at home. 

Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives last month and is on trial in the Senate on abuse of power charges. Netanyahu faces corruption charges and an national election on March 2, his third in less than a year. Both men deny wrongdoing.

Netanyahu’s election rival, Benny Gantz, who was also in Washington, DC, this week said he too supported the plan.

“The president’s peace plan is a significant and historic milestone indeed,” Gantz told reporters on Monday.