State Attorney Shai Nitzan on Sunday rejected allegations made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the way ongoing corruption investigations against him are being handled, saying that his office is committed solely to following the evidence and exposing the truth.
Netanyahu, who is currently implicated in three corruption cases, has repeatedly slammed what he calls the police's "obsessive quest" for state's witnesses to testify against him, suggesting that the three witnesses already secured have, in fact, lied to the police.
The three investigations currently underway are: Case 1,000, which centers on illicit gifts Netanyahu allegedly received from billionaires; Case 2,000, which focuses on an illicit deal Netanyahu allegedly tried to strike with newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes to ensure positive coverage; and Case 4,000, which centers on an alleged deal between Netanyahu and Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Israeli telecom corporation Bezeq, also to ensure positive coverage of the Netanyahu family by the Walla news website, a Bezeq subsidiary, in exchange for pushing government regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
During the course of the investigations, former PM bureau chief Ari Harow, former spokesman Nir Hefetz and former Communications Ministry Director Shlomo Filber, all considered close confidants of the prime minister, have turned state's witnesses.
In a recent video posted on social media, Netanyahu claimed, "They [the police] tell the suspect – your life will be over unless you give us the dirt on Netanyahu."
Speaking at a Jerusalem symposium hosted by the Israel Democracy Institute, Nitzan called Netanyahu's allegations "preposterous."
"We would never – never! – recruit a state's witness and tell him to perjure himself in order to incriminate another person. Any allegation to that effect is utterly preposterous. We are committed to one thing and one thing only – the truth."
Nitzan criticized the "various reports about the investigations [into Netanyahu] that generate a false impression among the public that the arrow has already hit something and now all we have to do is paint the target around it."
"The perception that things are signed, sealed and delivered and the result has been predetermined is wrong," he said. "I apologize for ruining the 'party,' but criminal proceedings are not a game. These are real investigations. They have to be carried out thoroughly and follow their full course. The evidence must be reviewed carefully and on merit only. We investigate first and conclude second – not the other way around."
Touching on reports of possible early elections and the suggestion that Netanyahu would seek elections to re-establish his mandate to govern, Nitzan noted that such a move would have no bearing on the investigations.
"The public's sympathy – or animosity – toward a certain individual does not determine our position, and neither will headlines or protests. We are moving forward thoroughly and resolutely, and when the time comes, professional considerations – and nothing else – will prevail."
As for the state's witnesses' credibility, which has been harshly called into question, Nitzan said, "The ability to offer state's witness deals is a significant instrument of law enforcement when dealing with organized crime and public corruption. Israel did not invent this instrument, and it is widely used by other democracies as well."
"The Supreme Court has recognized the legitimacy of this instrument and it is a vital tool in the war on crime," he continued. "In recent years, we have signed several such deals in other cases, including corruption cases, and overall they have proven their worth. Under the right circumstances, state's witness deals benefit the public interest. A state's witness' testimony that eradicates governmental corruption is of immense value and all of us benefit from it."
As for the attempts to delegitimize the judiciary, the state attorney said, "Every system, even law enforcement, has its faults. When a failure is discovered, we must act quickly to determine the cause and fix it as quickly as possible. This is what we did when the texts between a judge and an investigator were exposed – we dealt with it immediately."
Nitzan was referring to a recent startling revelation that the judge assigned to Case 4,000 and the lead attorney investigating the case for the Israel Securities Authority had illicitly coordinated legal proceedings.
"Still, we have to be very careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have to be very careful and not destroy the public's faith in the systems meant to protect it," he concluded.
