TEL AVIV — Even as Israel wages one of the toughest wars in its history, fighting in Gaza and dealing with increasingly intense clashes on its northern border, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is mounting his defense against corruption charges in a Jerusalem courtroom.
As hundreds of thousands of Israelis are being called up for reserve duty and tens of thousands of border community residents have been evacuated from their homes, Netanyahu is seeking to convince three Jerusalem District Court judges that he is innocent of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Netanyahu's criminal trial began in May 2020 after more than three years of investigations, and its end is nowhere in sight. The investigations, indictment and trial have made major domestic and international headlines, pitting pro- and anti-Netanyahu Israelis against each other in a bitter clash that tore at the fabric of Israeli society.
The government launched its dramatic campaign to weaken the country’s judicial system in January 2023, sending hundreds of thousands of opponents into the streets. The Oct. 7 Hamas attack appears to have stalled the so-called judicial reform for now. Both developments relegated Netanyahu’s legal woes to the sidelines, but the ongoing trial is of pivotal importance nonetheless, not only to Netanyahu's fate, but also to far broader issues shaping the nation.
