Tel Aviv Central Court rejects ministers’ request to delay Netanyahu’s trial 

Tel Aviv Central Court rejected a request yesterday from twelve ministers to delay Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial scheduled for today, Tuesday. The ministers’ request cited the “exceptional security situation” in the occupation state,

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the ministers referred in their letter to the current developments in Syria, and requested a hearing before the judges with the participation of the National Security Council.

“According to law, managing the trial is done by the sides to the trial, and by them alone,” said the trial judges. “No normative basis was laid to sway from this in this case. As such, the request will not lead to a change of the dates that were set to conduct the procedure.”

In response to the court’s decision, extreme far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X, “The court’s judges are harming Israel’s security.”

The Israeli prime minister is scheduled to appear before the Tel Aviv District Court to defend himself against the charges brought against him by the State Prosecution for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The court requires Netanyahu to appear before it three times a week for several hours until the end of his defence.

The trial will be held under tight security restrictions in a fortified underground hall in Tel Aviv, in accordance with the recommendations of the Shin Bet security service. Netanyahu has asked twice before to postpone his appearance before the court, but the court rejected his request and only agreed to a temporary postponement from 2 December to Tuesday.

Tel Aviv announced on Sunday the collapse of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement with Syria. The so-called Israel Defence Forces were then deployed in the demilitarised buffer zone in the Syrian Golan Heights, most of which Israel has occupied illegally since 1967.

Syrian opposition factions took control of the capital Damascus earlier on Sunday, after the withdrawal of regime forces from public institutions and streets. Bashar Al-Assad and his family left Syria secretly for Russia, where they were asylum for what Moscow called “humanitarian reasons”.

READ: Dozens of bodies found with signs of torture in Syria hospital