PM ordered Filber to fire official who was blocking pro-Elovitch policies
According to the report, Filber testified that Netanyahu ordered him to fire communications ministry deputy director-general Haran Leviot.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Former top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Shlomo Filber, told the police that the premier ordered him to fire a top communications ministry official who was standing in the way of the Case 4000 scheme with Shaul Elovitch, Channel 12 reported Wednesday night.Elovitch was the owner of the Bezeq group and of the Walla! media website.According to the report, Filber testified that Netanyahu ordered him to fire communications ministry deputy director-general Haran Leviot.Filber told police that he did not believe Netanyahu knew specifically who Leviot was, but that one of the various Bezeq representatives had passed on to the prime minister that the official was slowing down the scheme.Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit announced in February that he will likely indict Netanyahu and Elovitch for a complex telecommunications policy and media bribery scheme.Filber told police that Netanyahu called him to ask, “Who is this [Haran Leviot person]? Why haven’t you fired him?”Filber told police that it was clear to him that “someone had put a target” on Leviot for resisting the new pro-Elovitch policies that Filber was pushing through at the communications ministry at Netanyahu’s behest.According to Mandelblit, Netanyahu ordered Filber to push through pro-Elovitch policies making him NIS 1.8 billion through Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage from Walla!Previously, it has been known that Leviot fought against Filber’s attempts to switch ministry policies to be more pro-Elovitch.Further, it was known that Leviot left the office due to tensions with Filber.
However, the Channel 12 report injects Netanyahu into micromanaging how Filber removed ministry officials who were viewed as getting in the way.Ironically, the report also presented Filber as initially resisting Netanyahu, worrying that firing Leviot too speedily without laying a paper trail would raise red flags.Filber was hesitant to fire Levaot even though Levaot had essentially said in front of a room of ministry officials that his new suggested policies smelled of corruption.Netanyahu denies the allegations and has accused the police of twisting Filber into manufacturing allegations against the prime minister to save his own skin from corruption charges.
