Preemptive pardoning in Israel
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a pardon for his ongoing corruption case, which has been going on for five years. The charges have included charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and alleged political favors for wealthy backers in return for gifts or positive media coverage and there have not been any judgements to date. The Guardian reported on this and the case has led US’s President Trump to request a pardon from Israel’s President Isaac Herzog for the prime minister. This case has been going very slowly as the case has had several challenges, on the part of the prosecution, as well as the fact that Mr. Netanyahu was the prime minister during a part of the pendency of the case. After Mr. Trump’s request “Netanyahu argued it was in his personal interest to prove his innocence in court, but that it was in the interest of national unity to cut short the trial, which he claimed was “tearing us apart”.” There has been some precedent for this but the previous case where this did occur in 1986 was significantly different, and presently there has not been support for such a pardon. Civil society has been against the pardon, and some government officials have requested that if he were granted this pardon, Mr. Netanyahu would have to admit guilt and step down, neither of which seems forthcoming.
Why should we care and what should happen next? This entire situation is important as it highlights the difficulty of trying to bring senior government officials to justice. And part of the issue in this case is the problem of prosecutorial overreach, which has also complicated this case. The majority of the accusations have been quite clear, showing clear cases of abuse of power by a senior government official. The newest trend of pardoning senior government officials in this US is disturbing as it highlights the fact that the rule of law is being ignored, which indicates to the public that power trumps law. We can hope that the Israeli government will think twice before providing such a pardon.
Link:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/30/middleeast/netanyahu-pardon-israel-president-intl