Dershowitz on Netanyahu trial: 'Israel should be deeply ashamed'
Dershowitz added that if the prosecutors wanted to charge Netanyahu with a crime there should be certain precedents and parameters set around what constitutes the exploits as actionable offenses.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust on May 24, 2020.(photo credit: AMIT SHABI/YEDIOTH ACHRONOTH/POOL)
Israel "should be deeply ashamed" for putting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on trial for trying to obtain favorable media coverage, according to American lawyer and academic Alan Dershowitz, who served as a member of the defense team during the impeachment trial of United States President Donald Trump.Speaking to i24News, Dershowitz added that the Knesset would "never in a million years" make it a crime for politicians to push publications for more flattering media coverage "because if they did, half of the members of the Knesset would be in prison.""Israel is the first country in modern history to ever put a political leader on trial for trying to get good media coverage or trying to eliminate negative media coverage," Dershowitz told i24. "If you want to try people on these offenses in cases 1000, 2000 and 4000, let the Knesset pass statutes."He went on to explain his reasoning, noting that Israel is using "vague, open-ended, broad" statutes in order to fabricate new crimes, adding the case is unprecedented not because the first sitting Israeli prime minister is being charged for bribery, fraud and breach of public trust, but because "the charges being brought against Netanyahu are not crimes."Dershowitz added that if the prosecutors wanted to charge Netanyahu with a crime there should be certain precedents and parameters set around what constitutes the exploits as actionable offenses.Mandelblit announced on November 21 that he would indict Netanyahu for bribery in Case 4000 (the Bezeq-Walla Affair), for breach of public trust in Case 1000 (the Illegal Gifts Affair) and for breach of public trust in Case 2000 (the Yediot Aharonot Affair).Due to fights over potential immunity, the Netanyahu indictment was not filed until January 28 – and due to the election and the coronavirus crisis, the trial’s start date was delayed by several months.In Case 4000, Netanyahu is accused of involvement in a media bribery scheme in which Walla owner Shaul Elovitch allegedly gave him positive coverage in exchange for the prime minister making government policies favoring Elovitch’s Bezeq Company to the tune of around NIS 1.8 billion.In Case 1000, Netanyahu is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels in gifts from rich tycoons, mostly from Arnon Milchan, in exchange for help with business and personal-legal initiatives. But Dershowitz pushed back on the premise of that case even though according to Israeli law it is clear that government employees are not permitted to receive gifts. Government officials are ordered to report gifts they receive and in certain circumstances, if they wish to keep them, to pay the value to the state. Nevertheless, Dershowitz claimed that Israel's statues were too broad on the issue. "Let the Knesset say, 'anything up to 10,000 shekels is okay, but 10,001 shekels is not okay.' You cannot have a statute that leaves it up to the prosecution to decide how much is too much," Dershowtiz said. "It gives them too much discretion and allows for the selective prosecution. If you want to make it a crime, many states in the United States have made it a crime, to accept 'more than 10,000 dollars, 1,000 dollars.""Set it up. Then if the numbers exceed it, that's the end of it. [Case] 1000 fails, and Israel should have never brought a criminal prosecution based on 1000 - 2000 and 4000 are different," he concluded.
