Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completed his testimony in his criminal trial after a year and a half on the stand. He first testified in December 2024, over 98 hearings, and his cross-examination began in June 2025 and stretched for a year, with many hearings canceled and others shortened. The trial opened in January 2020, and for some counts nearly a decade has passed since the investigation began.
At the end of his testimony on Wednesday, Netanyahu said, “An enormous team spent a fortune, hundreds of millions of shekels. There was one goal, to find something, anything. They found nothing. Such a thing has never happened. What was supposed to be law enforcement became a coup d'etat of law.” He also attacked the cases against him, saying he still does not know what he is accused of in Case 2000, calling Case 4000 a “fictional construction” that is collapsing, and describing the investigations as a “hunt.”
On Case 1000, Netanyahu said investigators were manipulating the “gift law” and manufacturing an unlawful supply chain and breach of trust allegation around a small present from an acquaintance. He added, “I’ll tell you where the breach of trust is,” accusing investigators of extorting witnesses, placing them in poor conditions, and threatening them.
In his closing remarks to the judges, Netanyahu said that after “10 years of hell” it is impossible to undo the damage to him, his family, and “dozens of families,” but that “one thing” can still be restored, “the truth.” The case will now move to defense witnesses at the Jerusalem District Court, after hearings were temporarily moved to Tel Aviv for security reasons. Presiding Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman is due to retire in March 2028, and the court expects the trial to conclude before then.
