Israel

27 May 2020; MEMO: Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging Israel into a “civil war” to save himself and to escape personal problems.

“To get rid of personal troubles and to distract from problems he is responsible for, such as high unemployment and the like, he is inciting the public against itself,” Lieberman told Kan radio in an interview.

JERUSALEM, May 26 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israel’s GDP contracted by annualised 7.1 percent, in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a report released by the state’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

This decline, sharpest in the last 20 years, is mainly due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, a sharp decrease in passenger car imports intensified the GDP sharp fall.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pledged to annex parts of the occupied West Bank in the coming months, vowing to move ahead with the explosive plan despite a growing chorus of condemnations by key allies.

The Palestinians, with wide international backing, seek the entire West Bank as the heartland of a future independent state. Annexing large chunks of this territory would all but destroy the faint remaining hopes of a two-state solution.

JERUSALEM (AP) — To the sounds of his impassioned supporters chanting outside, a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strode into a Jerusalem courtroom Sunday to face corruption charges in a long-awaited trial that has overshadowed three inconclusive elections and deeply divided the country.

JERUSALEM, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long-awaited criminal trial is set to begin in a Jerusalem courtroom on Sunday, marking the first time Israel will see an incumbent prime minster stand trial.

Netanyahu will face the opening hearing of his corruption trial at the Jerusalem District Court at 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT), after a three-judge panel rejected last week his request to skip the opening hearing.

22 May 2020; MEMO: The Likud party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has escalated its campaign against the judiciary and Attorney General, Avichai Mandelbit ahead of Netanyahu’s corruption trial on Sunday, which Mandelblit ordered late last year.

JERUSALEM, May 21 (NNN-WAFA) – The Israeli court, on Wednesday, ordered Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to appear at the first court session of his upcoming corruption trial.

The Jerusalem District Court rejected a request filed by Netanyahu’s lawyers on Tuesday, to exempt him from appearing for the hearing.

The lawyers argued that Netanyahu’s presence was unnecessary because he had “read this indictment several times already,” and the five bodyguards needed to secure his arrival would cost the public coffers “a fortune.”

JERUSALEM, May 20 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, filed on Tuesday, a request not to stand before the court, at the opening session of his criminal trial next week.

In the request, Netanyahu’s lawyers say, his presence was “unnecessary” and would cost “a fortune.” According to the lawyers, the prime minister’s attending in court would require five security guards.

19 May 2020; MEMO: Israel’s newly appointed Foreign Minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, expressed his support for US President Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’, stressing it is a “historic opportunity” to shape Israel’s borders, local media reported yesterday.

“We are facing significant regional opportunities, primarily President [Donald] Trump’s peace initiative,” Ashkenazi was reported by the Times of Israel as saying.

JERUSALEM, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Israel has sworn in a unity government after the longest political crisis in the country’s history, and amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Under a power-sharing deal agreed in April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will serve for another 18 months.

His rival Benny Gantz will serve as deputy PM, before taking over.

The two politicians have agreed to press ahead with a controversial plan to annex part of the occupied West Bank area as early as July 1.