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Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his appearance in a corruption trial to give testimony to the police in a separate investigation, as the Israeli’s prime minister’s mounting legal troubles bring him into increasing conflict with the country’s legal and investigatory bodies.
Netanyahu’s top political adviser and a former spokesperson were named as suspects and arrested on Monday as part of the new investigation, dubbed ‘Qatar Gate’. The Lahav major crimes unit also summoned the prime minister for questioning later in the day.
Netanyahu was not named as a suspect, and no charges have been made public. But the investigation, which is being carried out under a court gag order, revolves around media reports that people in the prime minister’s office allegedly received consulting fees from Qatar while working for him.
After providing his own testimony, Netanyahu in a recorded video called the case a “political witch-hunt” aimed at “toppling a right-wing prime minister”. Police were holding his advisers Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein as “hostages, making their lives miserable”, he added.
Netanyahu’s office has denied any wrongdoing, describing the investigation as “fake news”.
On trial for corruption in Israel, and wanted for war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court, Netanyahu has recently stepped up his long-running attempts to tame the judiciary, prosecutors, attorney-general’s office and, most recently, the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, firing its chief Ronen Bar earlier this month.
On Monday he named a replacement despite a supreme court injunction freezing Bar’s dismissal. Netanyahu and Bar had clashed over various issues, including over the failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel and the Qatar Gate investigation, in which Shin Bet participated.
The details of the investigation remain unclear, but Israeli media have aired a recording from a local businessman saying he had transferred several payments to Feldstein as recently as last year, while he was working as a military spokesperson for Netanyahu, on behalf of an American lobbyist working for Qatar.
A lawyer for Feldstein and Ulrich could not be immediately reached for comment. Netanyahu’s personal lawyer, who is also representing Urich, left the prime minister’s corruption trial on Monday to assist his other client, according to local media. The lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Qatar’s involvement in Israeli and Palestinian affairs has become a major faultline inside Israel. Between 2018 and the October 2023 outbreak of war, Doha transferred more than $20mn a month to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — with the approval of Israel’s intelligence services and Netanyahu. The funds paid for public sector salaries, fuel and other social services.
But the arrangement came under increased scrutiny as investigations were launched by Israel’s security bodies into the intelligence and military failures before Hamas’s deadly cross-border raid. Recriminations were traded over Shin Bet’s alleged warnings to the government that the money was being diverted to Hamas’s military wing as the Palestinian militants prepared for the attack.
A Qatari official said: “This is not the first time we have been the subject of a smear campaign by those who do not want to see an end to this conflict or the remaining hostages returned to their families.” The official added the Gulf state remains committed to its efforts to end the conflict.
Israeli opposition figures and other government critics have, since the start of the Gaza war, begun to refer to Qatar as an “enemy state” despite Doha’s role mediating ceasefire-for-hostage talks between Israel and Hamas.
The Palestinian militant group’s political office is located in Doha, and US officials from both Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s administrations have lauded the constructive role played by Qatari officials.
Amid the escalating blame game, Feldstein last year allegedly received payments from Qatar’s US-based lobbyist to improve the Gulf state’s image in Israel. Urich is being investigated for alleged longer-standing ties with Qatar, including suspicions he may have facilitated the payments to Feldstein.
