Liat Ben Ari, the chief prosecutor in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial, was absent this week from the meeting on a possible mediation with defense attorneys for Netanyahu and his co-defendant in Case 4000, Shaul Elovitch. The reason: she is on an extended vacation abroad.
It’s not the first time that Ben Ari has been absent from meetings related to this case. In the past two years, Ben Ari preferred to go on long family trips abroad while she was supposed to actively manage the case. She has frequently preferred to go on long vacations during work time rather than on her office’s vacation days.
In October 2019, Ben Ari missed the first round of preliminary hearings in Netanyahu’s case because she and her family were on a safari in South Africa. In April 2021, Ben Ari skipped the court sessions again, to spend quality time abroad. Netanyahu’s lawyers were surprised to find out that she was missing, and the AG at the time, Avichai Mandelblit, defended her right to travel. But her choices regarding fun vs. work raise questions about her judgment. The prosecutor’s office responded: “We do not refer to private matters concerning our employees.”
Of course, they don’t.
In August 2020, Ben-Ari and her husband were summoned to the police for a criminal interrogation by the municipal prosecution in the Rosh HaAyin municipality, on suspicion of a construction violation that was allegedly committed in a house owned by Ben-Ari’s husband in partnership with her. Inspector Ziv Miller reported: “When I went back to the municipality to check if these things were done according to a permit, I discovered that there was no permit for these actions.”
AG Avichai Mandelblit came to her rescue this time, too. He issued a scathing letter to the Rosh HaAyin municipality, criticizing their conduct. Later, Bat Or Kahanovitz, a senior employee of the Office of the Attorney General, sent an urgent letter to Rosh HaAyin Mayor Shalom Ben Moshe and the chairman of the Planning and Construction Subcommittee, Yishai Edward, warning them not to interfere in Ben Ari’s construction violations case.
Say what you will about the click that runs Israel’s judiciary, but they know how to use the terrifying arsenal at their disposal to intimidate anyone threatening one of their own.
While Ben Ari is on a long vacation abroad, mediation talks were handled on behalf of the prosecution this week by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, the state prosecutor, the district attorney for taxation and economics, and prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh.
There has been some confusion regarding the mediation between Netanyahu and the prosecutor, with neither side willing to appear eager to seek a compromise. And so, the attorney for Netanyahu’s co-defendant Elovitch, Jacques Chen, accepted the burden of seeking mediation, in collaboration with Judge Oded Shaham, the member of the three-judge panel who has been hinting he didn’t think the prosecution’s position was very convincing.
As things stand now, with the list of prosecution witnesses cut by more than 60, the prosecution will probably rest in mid-2024, and Netanyahu will take the stand in the fall of that year. The defense will then take about two years to present its side of things, with summations due in late 2026 or early 2027. The court deliberations will likely take a few months, and then, should they find the defendant guilty of any of the charges, the appeals process will start, with a final ruling from the Supreme Court sometime in 2028.
A mediation that leaves Netanyahu unscathed in exchange for him giving up his office would end things so much sooner. I’m just saying. But Bibi is a patient and deliberate chess player, who knows where he’s taking this thing.
