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<\/a><\/p>\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that he is requesting a pardon in the charges against him, Nov. 30, 2025. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI am certain, as are many others in the nation, that an immediate end to the trial would greatly help lower the flames and promote broad reconciliation \u2014 something our country desperately needs,\u201d Netanyahu said in the speech on Sunday as his attorneys filed a petition with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who is responsible for granting pardons.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s speech comes weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog advocating a pardon, which Herzog said he could not consider because Israeli law requires the accused or his family to make the request.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu has three legal cases open against him, on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. They relate to allegations that he accepted lavish gifts in exchange for political favors and that he used his position to secure positive media coverage. The trial in the cases began in 2020 and has proceeded in fits and starts, with hearings routinely canceled as Netanyahu attends to Israel\u2019s affairs, including the multi-front war and a protest movement that Netanyahu and his allies allege has been stoked through foreign interference.<\/p>\n
In his speech, Netanyahu did not acknowledge guilt and said, as he long has contended, that the charges against him were political in nature. He alleged that crimes had been committed in the case against him. He also cited Trump\u2019s advocacy on his behalf.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump called for an immediate end to the trial so that, together with him, I could advance even more vigorously the vital interests shared by Israel and the United States, within a time window that may never return,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n
Herzog\u2019s office said it would consider the pardon request in accordance with Israeli law. Netanyahu\u2019s critics lambasted the request, saying it amounted to another assault on country\u2019s legal norms by the prime minister, whose right-wing government has led an effort to overhaul the judiciary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call on President Herzog: You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate withdrawal from political life,\u201d tweeted opposition leader Yair Lapid while making a video address of his own.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s request comes as the country nears elections that must take place within the next year. Netanyahu was reelected most recently in 2022, after the charges against him were in place.<\/p>\n
A previous prime minister who faced legal charges, Ehud Olmert, resigned before being charged and requested a pardon only after being convicted and jailed.<\/p>\n