After nearly two months of hiatus in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial testimony, he is now unlikely to return to the witness stand before next week, following a Sunday decision by presiding Jerusalem District Court Judges Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am, and Oded Shaham to hear another defense witness on Monday instead. Reuters and other coverage indicate Netanyahu’s last confirmed testimony was on February 23, before the later war-related court shutdown and subsequent postponement requests.
The decision followed a request to cancel the prime minister’s testimony due to what the defense called “security-diplomatic reasons,” set out in sealed materials provided both to the court and to the prosecution, which opposed the move. In its response, the prosecution said that, absent concrete and urgent security needs that could not be moved, Netanyahu should adjust his schedule to the court’s calendar and stressed the public interest in advancing the trial and, in particular, finishing his cross-examination.
Witness testimonies in the criminal case
The bench will instead hear from Ilanit Filber, the wife of former Netanyahu confidant and state witness Shlomo Filber, one of the central figures in Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla affair, and the only one of the three cases in which Netanyahu faces a bribery charge.
Shlomo Filber, who served as Communications Ministry director-general under Netanyahu, was long treated as a key prosecution witness on the allegation that Netanyahu directed regulatory steps benefiting Shaul Elovitch’s Bezeq in exchange for more favorable coverage on the Walla news site. But his testimony in 2022 was marked by major inconsistencies and significant softening on points central to the prosecution’s theory, and the State Attorney’s Office later moved to annul his state-witness agreement.
Procedurally, the case remains in the cross-examination phase of Netanyahu’s own testimony. Netanyahu first took the stand in December 2024, and prosecutors began cross-examining him in June 2025 after 36 defense-led sessions. Before the war-related court shutdown, the proceedings were still centered mainly on Case 4000, including the alleged “directive meeting” with Filber, which Netanyahu has denied.
Sunday’s court order also shows that defense witness Yoram Naaman finished his testimony, that Ilanit Filber is scheduled as defense witness No. 15 on Monday, and that the hearing set for Tuesday, the eve of Remembrance Day, was canceled. The reshuffling also lands at the start of a truncated court week, with Remembrance Day beginning Monday evening and Independence Day following immediately after.