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Activists set up a submarine-like structure in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged link to an unfolding scandal that has come to be called the “submarine affair” in Israel.
Protesters from the opposition Zionist Union party put up the structure at Habima Square in central Tel Aviv with a sign reading “with Bibi [Netanyahu], the country is sinking.”
Pbadersby received a “reminder of a serious corruption affair in which the accused are key people in Netanyahu’s circle,” the Zionist Union activists said in a statement cited by the Hebrew-language media.
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On Thursday, police said they had sufficient evidence to charge Netanyahu’s trusted attorney and cousin David Shimron with bribery and money laundering offenses for his role in what is thought to be one of the biggest graft schemes in the country’s history involving the $2 billion purchase of German submarines.
Shimron represented the German manufacturer ThyssenKrupp in the sale and has been suspected of trading his influence over the prime minister in return for a hefty cut of the deal.
While Netanyahu was questioned as a witness, he is not a suspect in the case.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and his personal lawyer David Shimron, left. (Flash90)
Besides Shimron, police on Thursday said the former chief of Netanyahu’s office, David Sharan, is also suspected of bribery, as is the former head of the navy, Eliezer Marom. IDF Brig. Gen (res.) Shay Brosh, former National Security Council deputy head Brig. Gen (res.) Avriel Bar-Yosef, former minister Eliezer Sandberg were named as suspects over similar offenses.
Police said there was insufficient evidence against another Netanyahu lawyer and longtime badociate, Shimron’s law partner Yitzhak Molcho, who had also been linked to the case.
The police announcement came at the conclusion of the long-running investigation into Israel’s purchase of submarines manufactured by German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp.
A key figure in the case is Miki Ganor, ThyssenKrupp’s Israel representative at the time of the deal, who agreed to turn state’s witness in mid-2017. Ganor is to serve a 12-month prison sentence and be fined 10 million shekels ($2.7 million) for tax offenses as part of his deal with the state, police said.
(L-R) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal lawyer David Shimron, his former diplomatic envoy Yitzhak Molcho, his former bureau chief David Sharan, former deputy national security adviser Avriel Bar-Yosef and former commander of the Israeli Navy Eliezer Marom (Flash90)
The police’s findings were handed over to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who will decide whether the suspects should be charged. At a legal conference on Haifa on Thursday, Mandelblit declined to give a time frame for a decision, but called the case “serious” and said the evidence would be examined thoroughly.
Opposition lawmakers immediately demanded Netanyahu resign in light of the police findings.
In a video posted online, Zionist Union head Avi Gabbay said the suspicions against Netanyahu’s confidants amounted to “treason,” and that hundreds of billions of dollars spent purchasing naval vessels unnecessarily should instead have been spent upgrading aging IDF equipment.
“We could have purchased armored personnel carriers to replace the aging vehicles our soldiers used to enter Gaza four years ago,” he said. “If the prime minister knew about [their] involvement, he must resign. If he didn’t know, he must resign because he’s unfit to lead our defense establishment.”
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid also said Netanyahu was unfit to lead the country in light of the case, even if he didn’t know about it.
“Netanyahu owes the public an explanation,” Lapid tweeted. “What else doesn’t he know? How is it possible that those closest to him allegedly took tens of millions of dollars under the table from the sensitive arms deals that [the prime minister] was supposedly handling personally?”
Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, who has accused the prime minister of involvement in the bribery scheme, said after the police issued their recommendations, “There was no way that Netanyahu didn’t know.” He claimed that the fact that police were not considering Netanyahu a suspect despite the involvement of his trusted attorney David Shimron raised serious questions about the investigation.
Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party hit back at Gabbay and Lapid, saying in a statement that “the attempts of the left to pin the ‘submarine affair’ on Prime Minister Netanyahu have collapsed in the face of reality.
“We offer our condolences to Lapid and Gabbay, who once again have seen their hopes dashed of replacing Prime Minister Netanyahu by means of false accusations,” the party said.
Though Netanyahu himself is not a suspect in the submarines case, police have recommended indicting him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in separate corruption cases.
Agencies contributed to this report.
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