A close friend of the Israeli Prime Minister is accused of having leaked documents covered by secrecy concerning the negotiations for the release of the hostages.
In the midst of the resumption of his corruption trial, Benyamin Netanyahu is splashed by another scandal involving one of his ex-advisors, accused of allegedly leaking documents covered by secrecy. Eli Feldstein was indicted on suspicion of disclosing a classified document concerning the negotiations for the release of hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 in Israel and held in Gaza, in order to influence the former minister critical media coverage of him.
Netanyahu’s critics say the affair highlights deep-rooted corruption within his cabinet, as well as troubled relationships between high-ranking military officials and politicians in the right-wing government coalition. Arrested in late October and placed in pretrial detention before being placed under house arrest last week, Feldstein allegedly received classified information from a reserve noncommissioned officer, whose identity has not been revealed.
During a press conference Monday evening, on the eve of the resumption of his trial for corruption, the accusations of which he vehemently contests, the Prime Minister was questioned about the affair targeting his former advisor. He said the accusations were part of a broader attack against him and his supporters. Weeks earlier, Netanyahu called Feldstein’s arrest and indictment a witch hunt and an abuse of the justice system.
Document leaked to “Bild”
Eli Feldstein and the deputy were indicted in November on charges of endangering state security. The document he is accused of leaking to the popular German daily Bild tended to show that the then Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was the main obstacle to an agreement for the release of the hostages, and that the demonstrations in Israel for their return were counterproductive.
The army has since rejected the information contained in the document, which was in line with the line defended by Mr. Netanyahu, opposed to a ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian Islamist movement against which Israel is at war in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The case is particularly serious, the charges against Feldstein and the non-commissioned officer making them face a sentence of up to life imprisonment.
Israel’s attorney general said Netanyahu’s former adviser leaked the document for political reasons in September, two months after receiving it, when public pressure against the prime minister was extremely high. forte. The army then announced the discovery in the Gaza Strip of the bodies of six hostages, killed at point blank range by their captors only a few days earlier, causing shock in Israel.
Netanyahu approved the handing over of this document to “Bild”
According to Barak Medina, professor of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Mr Feldstein’s lawyer argued that Mr Netanyahu had approved the handing over of this document to Bild”with a view to disrupting negotiations on the release of the hostages. Critics of the Prime Minister accuse him of wanting to continue the war in Gaza to the detriment of the hostages, in order to remain in power to escape his corruption affairs and a commission of inquiry into the security and military fiasco of October 7 .
According to Medina, the Feldstein affair also gives rise to some concern about the “lack of discipline within the army”. Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari was reprimanded by the chief of staff and apologized after speaking out against a bill, supported by two MPs from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. The text aims to prevent soldiers or members of the Defense establishment from being prosecuted for having transmitted confidential documents to the Prime Minister or Defense officials without prior authorization.
