Three years after first recommending that the prosecution consider withdrawing the bribery charge in Case 4000, the judges presiding over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trial announced on Monday that their position remains unchanged, even after Netanyahu completed his testimony and cross-examination.

After hearing arguments Monday morning regarding the judges’ decision to accelerate the proceedings to five hearing days per week, the panel recessed. Upon returning to the courtroom, the judges stated that the position they expressed exactly three years ago still stands.

In June 2023, the judges of the Jerusalem District Court—Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am, and Oded Shaham—invited the prosecution and defense attorneys to a meeting in their chambers. During that meeting, the judges told the prosecution that there were difficulties in proving the bribery charge in Case 4000, also known as the Bezeq-Walla affair, and recommended withdrawing that charge in order to streamline the proceedings.

The judges’ recommendation was rejected by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and the State Attorney’s Office, saying they intended to prove the bribery allegation during the defense phase—namely, through Netanyahu’s cross-examination.

The judges’ renewed recommendation came during Monday’s hearing on increasing the trial schedule to five days per week. Both the defense and the prosecution opposed accelerating the proceedings. Against that backdrop, the judges reiterated their earlier recommendation, a move that could significantly shorten the trial.

It should be noted that in the period before the indictments were filed against Netanyahu, then-Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said that “without a bribery charge, there are no indictments.”

Over the past year and a half, the bribery charges have been disproven over and over in court hearings.

In a court hearing in January 2025, the judges scoffed at the charges of bribery against Netanyahu, even snapping at the prosecutor that “the court recommended you drop the bribery charges.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to the report by stating: “After hearing the entire saga of the trial and also the Prime Minister’s testimony in full—the judges are reiterating their recommendation to the prosecution to drop the bribery charge against Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

“This absurd trial has already dragged on for six and a half (!) years and has caused severe damage to the State of Israel. I called to end it as soon as possible, more than three years ago, as a member of the opposition, after the judges issued that same recommendation to the prosecution.”

“The prosecution sealed its ears, just as it refused the mediation process proposed by the court.

“At this stage—continuing the prosecution’s entrenchment in its refusal to drop the bribery clause would be a disgrace, just like continuing this trial.”

Likud MK Yoav Kisch said: “The judges say to the fired Attorney General in the clearest way possible: There is no bribery offense in the Netanyahu trial.

“The entire trial against Netanyahu was fabricated to thwart a right-wing prime minister.

“The fabricated cases are collapsing, and she continues on her way. We are in a surreal reality where a fired political Attorney General continues a fabricated bribery prosecution against Prime Minister Netanyahu purely for political reasons.”

Likud MK Idit Silman stated: “The house of cards behind the persecution of the Prime Minister is finally collapsing!

“The District Court judges’ repeated and resounding recommendation to withdraw the absurd bribery charge in Case 4000 is nothing short of an earthquake. It is conclusive proof, in black and white, of what we have cried out for years: the cases against Netanyahu were fabricated for one purpose alone—to bring about a governmental coup and trample the will of the voters.

“The Attorney General and the State Attorney’s Office, which continue this relentless persecution, lost the public’s trust long ago. Instead of reassessing their course, admitting their mistake, and ending the persecution, they continue to drag an entire country through a campaign of personal political vengeance.

“The law enforcement system is supposed to protect justice, not run a political campaign under the guise of judicial proceedings. The prosecution’s desperate attempt to keep a case that is clinically dead on artificial life support, before our very eyes, is an unprecedented disgrace.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)