Netanyahu’s pardon bid sparks political firestorm in Israel

TEL AVIV

People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside a Tel Aviv court Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, a day after he asked the country's president for a pardon amid his ongoing corruption trial. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request over his trial on corruption charges has ignited political firestorm in Israel, triggering protests.

The premier announced on Nov. 30 that he had submitted a pardon request, saying the long-running cases were tearing the country apart.

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to Israeli President Isaac Herzog earlier this month, asking him to pardon Netanyahu, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the proceedings.

"The trial in my case has been ongoing for nearly six years, and is expected to continue for many more years," Netanyahu said in a video statement, without admitting guilt.

He explained he wanted to see the process through until acquittal, "but the security and political reality, the national interest, dictate otherwise.

"The continuation of the trial is tearing us apart from within, arousing fierce divisions, intensifying rifts," he added.

The cases against Netanyahu have exposed divisions in Israeli society between his supporters and opponents. Netanyahu's backers dismiss the trials as politically motivated.

The premier and his wife Sara are accused in one case of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.

He is also accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage from two Israeli media outlets in two other cases.

Netanyahu's statement was accompanied by a 111-page letter his lawyers submitted to Herzog

The timing of Netanyahu's request, submitted a few weeks after Trump's letter to Herzog ,was "an orchestrated move,” Israeli legal expert Eli Salzberger said.

Herzog's decision could take weeks, and if he grants the pardon, it is likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court, dragging out the process even further, said Salzberger, a law professor at the University of Haifa.

Under Israeli law, however, a pardon can only be granted to a convicted criminal.

Salzberger predicted that "if the pardon request is denied, it will be an easier path for [Netanyahu] to settle on a plea bargain,” an option the premier has so far rejected.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid insisted that a pardon must be conditioned on Netanyahu's "admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and an immediate withdrawal from political life.”

Yair Golan, head of the left-wing opposition party the Democrats, said: "Only the guilty seek pardon."

However, senior ministers backed Netanyahu's request.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said a pardon would end the "deep rift that has accompanied Israeli society for nearly a decade.”

Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to face a corruption trial.

Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside Herzog's private home in Tel Aviv, urging him to reject Netanyahu's request.

"People of Israel understand what is at stake, and it really is the future of our country," prominent anti-government activist Shikma Bressler, 45, told AFP.