The hearings in the criminal trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not take place this week, with a question mark hanging over next week, Jerusalem District Court Judges Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am, and Oded Shaham announced on Sunday.
The hearings have been taking place on a twice-a-week basis due to the dire security situation and the wars Israel is fighting on several fronts. Indicted in 2020, Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty to all three cases levied against him. The trial is currently in cross-examination, where it is estimated to remain for about a year before a verdict can be handed down.
When Israel attacked Iran on June 13, the courts went into an emergency operational mode, which included the prime minister's cases.
When a ceasefire was called between Israel and Iran, and non-essential operations across the country resumed, Netanyahu's defense team asked to pause the hearings for two weeks, due to what it said was a significant need for the prime minister to focus on the Gaza front and the issue of the hostages.
The prosecution rejected the request, and the court said that based on what was shown of the prime minister's planned schedule, there was no reason to cancel, only to begin late on Monday.
The judges on Sunday made their decision based on a closed-door meeting with the prime minister, as well as other security officials, like IDF Intelligence Chief Maj.-Gen. Shlomi Binder and Mossad head David Barnea.
They further said that a new decision would need to be put in regarding next week, as the security situation is dynamic and changes.
Such a visit by the prime minister to the Jerusalem District Court is surprising, as he pushed for the scheduled hearings to take place in the Tel Aviv District Court - where they are held now - due to security concerns.
This follows a post by US President Donald Trump early Sunday morning in Israel in support of Netanyahu and against his trial. The second such post within days called for the trial to end as it has hurt the efforts to reach a deal in Gaza.
“Let Bibi go,” he wrote.
Calls by foreign leaders into a country's internal legal issues is unusual, as it is seen as breaching a boundary of sovereignty. Trump's first post on the matter, published last week soon after the flimsy ceasefire, generated a wave of public discourse around the trial, including calls by some public figures to have Netanyahu pardoned.