Likud called for Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit to open a criminal investigation into allegations that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s company did business with the police without a proper tender.
“Investigate Benny Gantz now,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted Wednesday night.
Several current MKs closely allied with Netanyahu held a press conference in which they accused Gantz of corruption, following a State Comptroller’s Report released Wednesday, alleging the police behaved improperly.
Calling the allegations “case 50 million,” Tourism Minister Yariv Levin argued that Gantz’s cybersecurity company, the Fifth Dimension, “received a contract for NIS 50 million – against all the laws and with Gantz making false presentations – and managed to take NIS 4m. before it went bankrupt.”
Levin accused Gantz and then-police commissioner Roni Alsheikh of colluding to find a way to work together even if it violated the terms of whom the police could hire.
“This is a test for the legal authorities,” he added. “I read the [Yair] Lapid-Gantz party’s reaction to the State Comptroller’s Report, and they said there was nothing wrong with Gantz’s actions. What hypocrisy, what a double standard and disrespect for the public.”
“The public won’t agree to unequal enforcement of the law. The public won’t agree to a double standard, one for Gantz and one for the prime minister,” Levin said.
Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said “there are 50 million reasons” to launch an investigation.
“I call on Yair Lapid – Gantz’s number two, who used the words ‘corruption’ and ‘corrupt people’ in recent weeks, and who made integrity his flagship – to not be hypocritical, to not be two-faced,” Akunis said. “Don’t have one standard for Netanyahu and another for Benny Gantz, the head of your party. Take Gantz’s Case 50 Million seriously. If you’re fair, join our call to open a criminal investigation of the head of your party.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and Knesset Interior Committee chairman Yoav Kisch made similar comments.
Blue and White responded that there was no wrongdoing done by Gantz, while “a serious security scandal continues to hover over Netanyahu,” referring to the Submarine Affair.
Gantz told Blue and White activists in Tel Aviv that “Bibi has lost all restraint. Bibi has lost it. He has become a factory of slander, mudslinging and ugly lies. There is only one reason. He is going to lose and he knows it.”
Gantz did not address the State Comptroller’s Report.