Corruption and Corona: thousands protest against Netanyahu

The second day of deliberations in the corruption trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set the Jerusalem district court in the beginning of the testimony to the coming of January. Appropriate trial dates will then take place three times a week, decided by the presiding judge on Sunday.

Jochen Stahnke

Political correspondent for Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan, with headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu's defense had requested due to the Corona pandemic, to move the negotiations to another half a year. The new defender Yossi Segev was to be only for the hearing on Sunday has been commissioned, there's the question of his payment had not yet been clarified. At the beginning of July, another lawyer, Netanyahu's of the defence was withdrawn after the authorities Netanyahu had rejected a request to pay for his defense, a donation in the amount of up to two and a half million euros of his fellow American businessman Spencer Partridge.

The indictment against Netanyahu, who accused him of infidelity, breach of trust and corruption in three cases, has led to protests across Israel, which have been increased by the action of the government in the Corona-crisis. On Saturday around two thousand Israelis demonstrated once again in front of the residence of the Prime Minister and seven thousand more in Tel Aviv. At approximately two hundred road intersections in the whole country there were smaller rallies.