Netanyahu Aide Admits There Was an Instruction to Record the Vote
Friday's investigative report: After coalition officials denied in recent days the claims that Knesset members recorded their votes for the State Comptroller post, the "Shishi" broadcast revealed this evening, Friday, an audio recording of a source close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitting that lawmakers were instructed to prove their loyalty to the prime minister and vote for Netanyahu's lawyer, Michael Ravilo: "There was an instruction to document the vote." In the recording, the source is heard admitting that MKs filmed themselves voting for Netanyahu's private attorney, Michael Ravilo, following an instruction that was issued, even though the vote was supposed to be secret. The source said: "What do you mean, everyone filmed themselves in Likud, that's the only way we won. Very simple." The person speaking with him replied: "Everyone says 'there was no instruction,'" and the source answered: "Lies, there was an instruction, there was an instruction." As noted, on the evening after the vote, the central edition first published remarks attributed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to which "whoever sabotages Ravilo will pay in the primaries" and "are there traitors in the coalition?" Yesterday, retired Supreme Court Justice Yosef Elron, who lost in the Knesset vote to the prime minister's lawyer, Attorney Michael Ravilo, said that "the elections are invalid," and that "the vote was not secret." Elron said he does not intend to petition the High Court of Justice, but that he plans to respond as part of petitions that will be filed anyway. The Knesset's legal adviser, Sagit Afik, said her official position is that the vote for State Comptroller should not be canceled. In a letter explaining her position, Afik relied on the denials by coalition chairman Ofir Katz and Likud faction director Aliza Barashi that no demand was made of Knesset members to film themselves during the vote. In addition, she wrote that the difference between the results of the first and second voting rounds does not necessarily indicate pressure was applied. As noted, immediately after the vote results were published, the Movement for Quality Government and the Yesh Atid faction announced that they would petition the High Court against the appointment. "The appointment of the prime minister's personal lawyer to a position charged with oversight of the prime minister himself is a severe conflict of interest, and it was carried out in a process that was tainted before our eyes, after Knesset members were allegedly required to document their vote in an unlawful manner as a loyalty test, contrary to the position of the Knesset's legal counsel," the Movement for Quality Government said in its response. "It is important to stress, what we have just seen is the opening shot of the election campaign: this is what the attempt to subordinate the gatekeepers to personal loyalty looks like, and this is the direction heading into the general elections. We must not remain silent about this." Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also addressed Ravilo's selection in a special statement: "What we saw in the Knesset broke the record for criminality and chaos in Israel. The chaos coalition of Smotrich, Deri and Netanyahu proved that they have no red line. For the position of State Comptroller, who is supposed to oversee Netanyahu, they appointed his personal lawyer. Netanyahu's consigliere. The vote, which by law is supposed to be secret, became public and coerced. This is a process that is rotten to the core, blatantly illegal, and a black flag flies over it, so it will be disqualified. My friend, the opposition leader Lapid, filed the petition to the High Court. The appointment will be disqualified, but it will not be forgotten. The citizens of Israel will remember this forever. A direct line connects the choice of Ravilo as comptroller and the attempt to evade responsibility for October 7."
