Israel’s attorney general rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to postpone his corruption trial for two weeks, public broadcaster KAN reported.
Netanyahu had asked the Jerusalem District Court to delay his trial, claiming he needed to focus on other matters following the Israeli aggression on Iran, including the issue of returning Israeli captives from Gaza.
However, the attorney general on Friday refused Netanyahu’s request to postpone the trial sessions which are expected to resume on Monday.
The attorney general Justice Rivka Friedman-Feldman said “the general reasons detailed in the request cannot justify cancelling two weeks of hearings."
As a result, Netanyahu is expected to appear before the court on Monday as planned.
Reacting to the decision, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticised both the attorney general and the judges, writing on X: “The Attorney General’s Office and the judges of Netanyahu’s government insist on being small dwarfs, lacking any strategic vision or understanding of reality.”
“They seem determined to help us highlight for the public the destructive and dangerous corruption that has taken hold of the judicial system, and the urgent need to reform it,” he added.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also criticised the court’s decision, calling it a “detached and miserable decision.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi echoed the criticism, saying: “They live in their own world, isolated… Shame on them!”
Likud lawmaker Avichai Buaron said Netanyahu should simply notify the court and the attorney general that "his duty to the state and the national interest outweigh the need for four more evidentiary hearings, and that he won’t attend in the next two weeks."
For several months, Netanyahu has appeared twice a week before the court to respond to the charges against him but the sessions were halted during the recent Israel-Iran conflict that began on June 13 and lasted for 12 days.
On Thursday, Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for calling to cancel his corruption trial, a move that sparked wide controversy and division in Israel.
Supporters of Netanyahu welcomed it, while the opposition urged Trump not to interfere in Israel’s judicial process.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Thursday in an interview with news website Ynet: "We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country."
Lapid, of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, backed a statement by one of Netanyahu's coalition allies, Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who called for Trump to stay out of the court case.
"It is not the role of the president of the United States to interfere in legal proceedings in the State of Israel," said Rothman, who chairs the Israeli parliament's judicial affairs committee.
Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust that could lead to imprisonment if proven.
In January, Netanyahu began interrogation sessions related to Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, which he denies. The attorney general filed an indictment related to these cases at the end of November 2019.
Case 1000 involves Netanyahu and his family receiving expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for favours.
Case 2000 concerns alleged negotiations with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, to gain positive media coverage.
Case 4000, considered the most serious, involves providing facilitation to Shaul Elovitch, the former owner of the news site Walla and a telecommunications company Bezeq, in return for favourable media coverage.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
