Politics overshadowed the legal proceedings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial testimony on Monday when hostage families and the Israel leader’s supporters verbally clashed in the courtroom about his policies regarding negotiations with Hamas and a hostage deal.
IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Asaf Agmon and Ayala Metzger were in the audience when Agmon called on Netanyahu to remove his hostage and Israeli flag pins.
“You’re killing the hostages,” yelled Agmon, adding that his Israeli flag pin should be removed because he was destroying the country.
Agmon, whose grandson Sgt. Gur Kehati was killed in action into a November incident in which a civilian was escorted to a Lebanese archeological site, said that his grandson would be ashamed of Netanyahu and blamed the prime minister for the death of Kehati and Metzger’s father-in-law, hostage Yoram Metzger.
Pro-Netanyahu activists shouted words of support for the prime minister as the courtroom devolved in a cacophony of heckling and hollering. Attorney and activist Kinneret Barashi defended Netanyahu during the hearing, later denigrating Agmon on X/Twitter as “a violent man who encourages defiance.”
“A rude man who thinks that because he is a bereaved grandfather, he is allowed to curse anyone who thinks differently from him,” said Barashi.
She accused Agmon of once saying that her father was turning in his grave, adding that he cursed Netanyahu, whose brother had fallen in battle.
The dispute in the courtroom
Another controversy arose earlier in the courtroom while Netanyahu took a break in his testimony when one of the journalists present asked the judges to allow them to pose questions to the prime minister during breaks and at the beginning and end of hearings.
Defense attorney Amit Haddad took exception to the proposal, charging the media of harassing his client with questions such as why he is “letting hostages die.”
Outside the courthouse, activists also protested the prime minister’s approach to the issue of hostages held by Hamas, as well as several ongoing controversies challenging the Netanyahu government.
Signs and costumes referenced the dismissals of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. One man was dressed in a mock Qatari outfit with a billboard of dollar bills, alluding to allegations that
Netanyahu’s office has financial ties to Qatar.
Several pro-Netanyahu protesters, including one who is a permanent fixture outside the prime minister’s testimonies, engaged in a shouting match with opposing demonstrators.