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Netanyahu corruption scandal: new evidence uncovered

November 10, 2017 at 8:17 pm

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu giving a TV interview [IsraelinUSA/Flickr]

Accusation that Benjamin Netanyahu collaborated with the media to win favourable coverage has once again come to haunt the Israeli Prime Minister.

New evidence suggests that Netanyahu struck a mutually favourable deal with Shaul Elovitch, who is the owner of Bezeq, an Israeli telecommunications company. The deal guaranteed biased coverage in favour of the Likud leader.

This fresh evidence of Netanyahu’s shady deals with the media adds further pressure on the Prime Minister. Last year the Israeli primer was dogged by a similar scandal. It was revealed that Netanyahu was cutting illegal deals with media moguls in order to get favourable coverage.

An investigation by the Israeli police into Netanyahu revealed a conversation between the Israeli premier and media tycoon Arnon Mozes where the two can he heard hammering out a deal.

The media mogul Mozes was offered financial and business advantages in exchange for favourable newspaper coverage of Netanyahu.

Read: Most Israelis believe Netanyahu guilty of corruption

The latest scandal supports the claim made by the Israeli Haaretz newspaper that some of the country’s most popular news portals are in the pockets of Netanyahu.

Israeli authorities obtained the new evidence while probing an ongoing corruption case involving Bezeq.

If ongoing probe into Netanyahu’s shady collaboration with media moguls proves to be his downfall he will join past prime ministers and senior figures in the country to be convicted over corruption.

In the past decade alone, a number of scandals have rocked the country; a president was jailed for rape, a former prime minister was sent to prison for bribery and numerous misdeeds by ministers, lawmakers and mayors were uncovered.