TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked the country’s president to grant him a pardon from corruption charges, seeking to end a long-running trial that has deeply divided the nation.
Netanyahu, who has clashed with the legal system over the accusations, said the request would aid national unity amid major regional changes. Opponents immediately denounced the move, arguing it would weaken Israel’s democratic institutions and signal that he is above the law.
The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu submitted a pardon request to the legal department of the Office of the President. The president’s office described it as an “extraordinary request” with “significant implications.”
Netanyahu is the only sitting Israeli prime minister in history to be tried, accused in three separate cases of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes tied to alleged exchanges of favors with wealthy supporters. He has not been convicted and rejects the charges, calling the prosecution a media-, police- and judiciary-orchestrated “witch hunt.”
The request follows weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Israel to pardon Netanyahu and earlier this month sent a letter to President Isaac Herzog calling the case “political, unjustified prosecution.”
In a videotaped statement, Netanyahu said the trial has fractured the country and that a pardon would help restore unity. He also said the obligation to appear in court three times a week distracts him and hampers his ability to lead.
“The continuation of the trial tears us apart from within, stirs up this division, and deepens rifts. I am sure, like many others in the nation, that an immediate conclusion of the trial would greatly help to lower the flames and promote the broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs,” he said.
Netanyahu has testified repeatedly over the past year, but proceedings have been repeatedly postponed as he deals with wars and unrest stemming from the Hamas-led militant attacks of October 2023.
His pardon submission includes two documents — a detailed letter from his lawyer and a letter signed by Netanyahu himself. They will be sent to the Justice Ministry for review, then to the Legal Advisor in the Office of the President, which will prepare further opinions for the president.
Legal experts say a presidential pardon cannot halt an ongoing trial. “It’s impossible,” said Emi Palmor, a former director general of the Justice Ministry. “You cannot claim that you’re innocent while the trial is going on and come to the president and ask him to intervene,” she added, saying the attorney general is the proper authority to suspend proceedings.
Netanyahu has long portrayed himself as the target of a “deep state” conspiracy aimed at removing him. In 2008, as opposition leader, he urged then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign amid corruption allegations; Olmert stepped down before indictment and later served prison time. Since his own legal troubles began, Netanyahu has taken a defiant line.
After forming his current government in late 2022, Netanyahu pushed a plan to overhaul Israel’s justice system, calling it necessary reform. Critics accused him of attempting to weaken judicial checks and balances and acting with a conflict of interest while on trial. The proposal sparked mass street protests, and opponents said the resulting divisions signaled weakness that contributed to the October 2023 Hamas attacks.
Netanyahu’s pardon request drew swift backlash from the opposition and civic groups urging the president to refuse. “You cannot grant him a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and an immediate retirement from political life,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel warned that pardoning a prime minister accused of serious offenses would convey that some citizens are above the law.
Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
