Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Seeks Pardon in Corruption Trial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly requested that Israeli President Isaac Herzog pardon him over the corruption cases he has battled for half a decade.

“My lawyers filed today a pardon request to the state’s president,” Netanyahu said in a Nov. 30 statement, translated from Hebrew to English.

“I expect that anyone who wishes for the good of the country supports this step.”

Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases, which allegedly included accepting gifts from businessmen worth $264,000 and offering favors to media organizations in exchange for positive coverage.

The 76-year-old denied any wrongdoing and said on Nov. 30 that a pardon is in the “national interest” of Israel.

“My personal interest was, and still is, to continue with the [legal] process to its end, until a full acquittal in all charges,” Netanyahu said.

“But the security and political reality, the national interest, those demand otherwise.”

Netanyahu’s trial has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and by his responsibilities as prime minister.

“The state of Israel faces great challenges alongside great opportunities,” Netanyahu said.

“In order to push away the threats and realize the opportunities, a national unity is required. The continuation of the trial is tearing us apart from the inside, is stirring heated controversies, intensifies rifts. I am sure, like many others among the people, that the immediate end of the trial will help a lot in lowering the flames and in promoting a wide reconciliation that our country needs so much.”

Netanyahu could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of bribery and a maximum of three years in prison for fraud and breach of trust.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested that if Herzog decides to issue a pardon, he must impose some requirements.

“I call on President Herzog: You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate withdrawal from political life,” Lapid wrote on X on Nov. 30.

U.S. President Donald Trump has supported Netanyahu during the legal process and urged prosecutors to drop what he called a “politically motivated” corruption trial.

Separately, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in November 2024 for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, then Israeli minister of defense, accusing them of war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu called the court’s action an “anti-Semitic decision.”