Netanyahu trial day five: Bibi says indictment shows he's being targeted by fake allegations

There was a brief break in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah's Monday corruption trial testimony.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his Monday corruption trial testimony that the prosecution's arguments that he advocated for the sale of Walla to Australian tycoon James Packer contradicted those that he maintained a media bribery scheme for positive coverage on the website.

Netanyahu argued that if there was a beneficial relationship with co-defendant and Walla owner Shaul Elovitch, there was no purpose in advocating for Packer to purchase the outlet.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued at his Monday corruption trial testimony that the amount and length of calls between him and alleged media bribery scheme co-defendant Shaul Elovitch indicated that there was nothing extraordinary in their relationship.

Netanyahu counted out a list of calls in front of the court, noting that there were only about eight calls lasting several minutes from Netanyahu to Elovitch over the course of a year.

"There's nothing exceptional here," said Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at his Monday corruption trial testimony, disputed that the reforms he advanced a decade ago were to benefit Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch, arguing that the new policies could have been a catastrophe for his supposed partner in an alleged media bribery scheme.

"I advanced a very difficult reform -- difficult but correct -- to break up a monopoly," said Netanyahu.

While the prosecution contended that Netanyahu had pushed policies beneficial to Elovitch's telecommunications company in return for positive media coverage on Walla, the prime minister said that he didn't want to benefit or damage Elovitch's interests -- these were not factors in his consideration.

"It is absolutely unbelievable," Netanyahu said, repeating the word "unbelievable" in English. 

At Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial testimony on Monday, the defense challenged an item in the indictment as not actually representative of exceptional coverage in his favor.

The defense said that an article about snow causing Netanyahu's patio rooftop to collapse was covered by many news sites, and Walla had published it at midnight when it was irrelevant.

At Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial on Monday, the defense claimed that another of the allegations in the indictment was not presented to him.

Netanyahu asserted that investigators did not question him about "97%" of the items in the indictment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at his Monday corruption trial testimony, reiterated arguments that he had appealed to Walla owner Shaul Elovitch about what he deemed irresponsible news coverage regarding Iran rather than about positive coverage about himself.

Netanyahu said that Walla was causing "massive damage" by providing spin in favor of Iran, which he said much of Israeli media was guilty of.

The defense highlighted Walla's ostensible hostility to Netanyahu by noting that one article on the website contained a picture of the prime minister with a caption describing him as the "Israeli [former Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad." Netanyahu described Walla as "Walla Iran," "Walla Hamas," and a repeated nickname for the site "Walla Ackbar."

Activists in favor of and against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dueled with megaphones outside the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday as the Israeli leader began his fifth day of testimony in a corruption trial.

A handful of protesters stood outside the gates to the courthouse, most of them supporters of the prime minister.

"Enough persecution!" read one sign, while another thanked Netanyahu for defending the country during a war

Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defense lawyer Amit Haddad's Wednesday arguments that the indictment in the Israeli leader's corruption trial did not adequately attribute how he was aware or involved in demands made to Walla in an alleged media bribery scheme, the prosecution on Monday issued a statement arguing that the defendant had established a bribery mechanism in which he had direct or general involvement of requests to the outlet.

Just as the Monday hearing began at the Tel Aviv District Court, the prosecution said that all demands catalogued in the indictment and its first appendix originated from Netanyahu or his family. Netanyahu had allegedly developed a coverage demand mechanism with co-defendants Shaul Elovitch and his wife, in which it was generally known that demands were being made by family members. The indictment and prosecution never claimed that Netanyahu knew of the specifics of each demand made by family members directly or through intermediaries but knew that demands were being made.

Netanyahu and family members allegedly made demands of Walla, together and separately, sometimes through intermediaries, the prosecution said. The supposed intermediaries did not act of their own initiative, the prosecution said in response to arguments made by Haddad and Netanyahu on Wednesday.

The fifth day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony for his corruption trial began at the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday.