Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally submitted a request for a presidential pardon while still standing trial on corruption charges — an unprecedented move for a sitting Israeli leader. The 111-page plea, delivered to President Isaac Herzog, seeks to end the six-year legal proceedings without Netanyahu admitting guilt and without stepping down from office.
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust across three cases alleging he traded political favours for gifts and favourable media coverage from wealthy businessmen, including a telecom executive, a Hollywood producer and a major newspaper publisher. Although the indictments were issued in 2019 and the trial began in 2020, the legal process has stretched on due to repeated postponements, partly linked to Israel’s political instability and Netanyahu’s claims of urgent national-security duties.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu framed himself as the victim of a coordinated “deep state” effort involving the media, police and judiciary to remove him from power. He argued that the ongoing trial is deepening national divisions and weakening the state, saying the pardon would help “lower the flames” and promote “broad reconciliation” at a time of regional crisis. He also insisted that attending court hearings multiple times per week undermines his ability to lead the country effectively.
The pardon request follows reported support from US President Donald Trump, who urged Israel — both publicly in the Knesset and privately in a letter to Herzog — to halt what he called a “political, unjustified prosecution” of Netanyahu. Several cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Israel Katz, have backed the move as necessary for national stability.
Reaction inside Israel has been sharply polarised. Critics point out that Netanyahu is attempting to avoid accountability despite previously demanding the resignation of former prime minister Ehud Olmert during his corruption scandal in 2008. Small demonstrations broke out outside the president’s residence, where protesters left a pile of bananas to symbolise their warning that granting a pardon would turn Israel into a “banana republic”.
Herzog has not yet announced a decision. While he has previously floated the idea of a negotiated settlement between Netanyahu’s legal team and prosecutors, granting a full pardon to a sitting prime minister before conviction would set a historic and highly controversial precedent.
