JERUSALEM: Israel’s opposition leader on Thursday criticised US President Donald Trump for saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial should be cancelled, warning him against interfering in internal affairs.
Trump on Wednesday described the case against Netanyahu as a “witch hunt”, echoing the Israeli premier’s dismissal of the corruption charges which he has flatly rejected.
In a message on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the Netanyahu trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero”, after the end of a 12-day war with Iran.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in an interview with news website Ynet: “We are thankful to President Trump, but... the president should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country.”
Lapid, of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, backed a statement by one of Netanyahu’s coalition allies, Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who called for Trump to stay out of the court case.
“It is not the role of the president of the United States to interfere in legal proceedings in the State of Israel,“ said Rothman, who chairs the Israeli parliament’s judicial affairs committee.
Rothman, a vocal critic of what he argues is judicial overreach, however said that “the management of Netanyahu’s cases is transforming the image of the State of Israel from a regional and global power into a banana republic.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of another far-right party in Netnayhua’s coalition, branded the trial as politically motivated.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was “distorted, unreasonable, contrary to the basic sense of justice” to continue Netanyahu’s trial at war, backing Trump’s call to drop the charges against the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. During his current term since late 2022, his government has proposed a series of far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say were designed to weaken the courts.
In the trial that has been delayed many times since it began in May 2020, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.
In a first case, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.
Two other cases allege that Netanyahu attempted to negotiate more favourable coverage in two Israeli media outlets.
Netanyahu has requested multiple postponements in the proceedings, most recently citing the ongoing war in Gaza since April 2023, later in Lebanon and earlier this month in Iran.
