Israel: On December 2, Netanyahu’s testimony in the corruption trial –

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will testify on December 2 in his trial on corruption charges, as the court on Wednesday 11/13 rejected his request for another postponement, according to Israeli media.

Following this development, Netanyahu will not seek another delay, political analyst Amit Segal, who is considered to be close to Netanyahu, told Channel 12.

Netanyahu’s lawyers had asked for the trial to be delayed, arguing that the prime minister had failed to prepare for the testimony because of pressure to manage the war.

The court ruled, however, that it gave Netanyahu plenty of time to prepare the deposition when it set the July date and stressed that “we are not convinced that there has been any substantial change in circumstances that would justify a change in the date we set in the (original) our decision”.

The prime minister was charged in January 2020 with fraud and infidelity in two cases and bribery, fraud and infidelity in a third case, and the trial began in May of that year. Netanyahu himself denies all the charges against him.

Before the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, Israel had been experiencing months of protests against a judicial reform promoted by Israel’s far-right government, which came to power in December 2022.

Strong and persistent opposition to the reform came from many different segments of Israeli society – citizens, judges, and the military, among others.

Many have accused Netanyahu of trying to use judicial reform to soften the consequences of a conviction in the case against him.

Large demonstrations and backlash against judicial reform have been frozen due to Israel’s war in Gaza.