The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday cancelled the scheduled Monday hearing in the criminal trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the defense informed the judges of an “urgent diplomatic meeting.”
As a result, Netanyahu is now set to testify only on Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., a shortened schedule confirmed by the court due to one of the presiding judges’ prior judicial commitments. Typically, hearings run until 4 p.m.
The prime minister was indicted in 2020, and the trial has been ongoing ever since. Cross-examination began in June, and the three-day-a-week hearing schedule took effect last month. The charges include bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases: 1000, 2000, and 4000.
The request was submitted as Israel awaits the return of the last remaining hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili, whose case has drawn mounting public attention.
Netanyahu met on Sunday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, part of a broader effort to stabilize relations between Jerusalem and Berlin after months of visible strain.
Netanyahu's pardon request is 'unprecedented in modern Israeli legal practice'
So far, the court has not altered the trial schedule in light of Netanyahu’s extraordinary request for a presidential pardon, submitted last week to President Isaac Herzog.
The application urges Herzog to “rise to the occasion” and use the pardon authority to help unify a deeply divided public.
Netanyahu’s defense team has argued that the intensified hearing schedule, increased from two to three sessions per week, has created significant strain, though the court has made no indication that the request will influence proceedings.
At Yad Vashem with Merz on Sunday, Netanyahu said at a press briefing that he would not exit his political life if Herzog were to grant him the pardon.
The pardon request remains unprecedented in modern Israeli legal practice: It seeks executive clemency in the middle of an active criminal trial.
All past presidential pardons in Israel have been sought either before an indictment or after a conviction. The request pointedly does not include any admission of guilt.
The cancellation of Monday’s hearing also comes as security tensions rise along Israel’s northern frontiers. In recent days, cross-border incidents with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border have escalated, and reports of intensified strikes in Syria have added to concerns within the security establishment, a backdrop that has pushed diplomatic, military, and legal developments into closer collision.