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May. 25, 2021 8:46 PM
Former Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog, who is now the leading candidate as Israel s next president, in effect dictated a headline to Ilan Yeshua, the CEO of the Walla news website at the time, who is now a key prosecution witness in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bribery trial. Herzog s request for a headline came after Herzog won an internal party battle at the 2013 Labor Party convention.
Under cross-examination of Yeshua Tuesday in Jerusalem District Court, lawyers for Shaul Elovitch and his wife, Iris, produced a 2013 message from Herzog to Yeshua: “I’d be happy if the headline is ‘Crushing victory for Herzog in spite of the attacks on him,’” the Labor leader wrote. “I need to demonstrate control and exclusion of the bitch,” referring to former Labor Party leader and MK Shelly Yacimovich.
Key witness resumes testimony in Netanyahu corruption trial
April 16, 2021
(JNS) The former CEO of Israel’s Walla news website on Tuesday resumed his testimony before the Jerusalem District Court in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Ilan Yeshua is a key witness for the prosecution in Case 4000, in which Netanyahu is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust for allegedly promoting regulatory decisions that favored the interests of Shaul Elovitch, then the controlling shareholder of telecom giant Bezeq, in exchange for positive coverage in Walla, which was then owned by Bezeq.
The case against Netanyahu is headed by prose.
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel s military correspondent.
Former CEO of the Walla news website Ilan Yeshua arrives for his testimony at in the case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the District Court in Jerusalem, April 7, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The evidentiary stage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial kicked off this week with witnesses painting a dour picture of a leading Israeli media outlet, controlled and manipulated by the premier.
During nearly three full days of testimony by one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, the former CEO of the Walla news site, Ilan Yeshua detailed the favorable treatment he said he was directed to give the premier in exchange for regulatory favors for the website’s owners, Shaul and Iris Elovitch, who also owned the telcom giant Bezeq, which allegedly earned them upwards of NIS 1.8 billion ($548 million).
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The first witness told the Jerusalem court on Monday that his boss feared that any news story angering Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, would kill his chances of getting regulatory relief.
The witness, Ilan Yeshua, served at the time as CEO of Walla, an internet news site owned by the Bezeq telecommunications company. Netanyahu is charged with bribery for having allegedly conferred massive regulatory benefits on Bezeq in exchange for favorable coverage on Walla.
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9:13 A.M. Session begins, Yeshua says he received threats after Monday testimony
The former CEO of the Walla News site, Ilan Yeshua, is set to resume his testimony on Tuesday at 11:00 A.M.