Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completed his testimony on Wednesday in the three corruption cases that have shadowed his tenure since the indictment was filed in 2019. After 98 court sessions spanning more than 17 months, the first sitting Israeli head of government to face a criminal trial stepped down from the witness stand, a phase that began in December 2024 and included nearly 60 days of prosecution cross-examination. The trial now moves to remaining defence witnesses before the three-judge panel in Jerusalem receives written summaries and eventually issues a verdict.

Netanyahu, who faces charges of fraud and breach of trust in two cases and an additional bribery charge in the most serious file, has consistently rejected the allegations as a politically motivated ‘witch hunt.’ In his final remarks, he described the decade-long investigation as ‘hell’ and compared the prosecution’s methods to those of the East German Stasi, according to Israeli media accounts. His defence maintains that the gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer were tokens of private friendship, that his conversations with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes were ordinary political manoeuvring, and that the Walla news site was hostile rather than a beneficiary of regulatory favours for Bezeq’s controlling shareholder.

The prosecution, however, has argued that the three files, when examined together, reveal a prime minister whose personal relationships, media interests, and official decisions repeatedly converged. In Case 4000, the state alleges that Netanyahu, while serving as communications minister, granted regulatory benefits to Shaul Elovitch in exchange for favourable coverage on the Walla portal. Prosecutors also highlighted what they described as extensive memory lapses during police questioning, noting that Netanyahu answered ‘I don’t remember’ more than 1,700 times in the two lesser cases, a point the defence countered by asserting that gaps in recollection are normal and not evasive.

The proceedings have been repeatedly postponed by security crises, including the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and the recent military confrontation with Iran. A Hebrew University poll cited in Arab-language media indicates that 92 per cent of Israelis believe Iran emerged victorious from that conflict, and Netanyahu’s approval rating has fallen from 40.5 per cent in March to 29.4 per cent in June. Public anger over the security failures of 7 October 2023 continues to weigh on his electoral prospects ahead of general elections scheduled for October. With the prime minister’s testimony now concluded, the court will hear the remaining defence witnesses in Jerusalem, a process expected to last several more months before the parties submit their summations and the judges deliberate.