‘False, dangerous’: Outgoing deputy AG slams Netanyahu’s attacks on judicial system
The outgoing deputy attorney general has said some of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements regarding Israel’s judicial system are “extremely dangerous.”
Ran Nizri was involved in many of the legal proceedings that led to Netanyahu’s indictment and ongoing trial in three graft cases, and experienced first-hand the former prime minister’s verbal assaults on the Israeli judicial system.
Along with Netanyahu’s own allegations that he was being framed by a corrupt Israeli state prosecution, “we started seeing attacks from the right on the judicial system, dangerous attacks that tried to politically defame [the system] by accusing it of frameups,” Nizri told Channel 13 in an interview marking his retirement.
“If I’d thought people were being framed I wouldn’t have stayed in the system for even a minute and wouldn’t have defended it,” he stated.
“We definitely reached situations where we should have said: ‘Mr. Prime Minister, you can’t do something like that.’”
Appearing in court for the beginning of his corruption trial in May 2020, Netanyahu ripped into police, prosecutors and the judicial system as a whole, referring to the trial as a “political coup against the will of the people.”
“Elements in the police and State Attorney’s Office banded together with left-wing journalists… to fabricate baseless cases against me,” he charged at the time and has continued to maintain.
In April last year, then-prime minister Netanyahu openly defied forceful warnings by then-attorney general Avichai Mandelblit and tried to push through the appointment of Likud MK Ofir Akunis as justice minister despite the move being illegal.
That attempt was eventually halted by the High Court of Justice.
Some of the things Netanyahu said, Nizri argued, were “false, dangerous and inciting statements, because they undermined the basic foundations of the rule of law and democracy.”
He added: “Not respecting the position of the attorney general is a slippery slope in regards to the damage it causes the rule of law and the democratic system in Israel.”
Addressing the public discourse that has surrounded Netanyahu and his trial, Nizri said it, too, compromised public trust in Israel’s institutions.
“I always called it a discussion between Netanyahu’s worshipers and his haters. The worshipers, as far as they’re concerned, in every situation Netanyahu is innocent and persecuted. On the other hand, Netanyahu’s haters believe that an investigation was never needed and he should have been put in jail immediately. These are populistic approaches that make public discourse more extreme and increase criticism of law enforcement while lowering public trust in law enforcement. This is dangerous, of course,” he said.
Despite Nizri’s critical position toward Netanyahu, he suggested that reaching a plea bargain in the former prime minister’s ongoing trial would be in the interest of both the defense and the prosecution.
“It would constitute proper risk management by both sides,” Nizri argued. “It would also be beneficial to the public and the state,” he added, noting, however, that “Whenever we discuss offenses relating to breach of trust while serving [in public office], such offenses are shameful.”
In May, Netanyahu reportedly stated he would not consider any plea bargain in his ongoing corruption trial. A plea deal would likely include a conviction on offenses that would force the former prime minister out of public office.
Netanyahu, 72, is on trial in three separate graft cases: for fraud and breach of trust in Case 1000 and in Case 2000, and for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000.
He denies all allegations against him, and claims the charges were fabricated by a biased police force and state prosecution service, overseen by a weak attorney general, in league with political opponents and the leftist media.
Nizri announced he was leaving the Justice Ministry in January, after failing to make a shortlist of candidates to become attorney general.