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Nir Hefetz in court, today
(Photo: Yoav Dodkevitz)
Defense attorney Ben-Zur presented headlines from the site, which read, among other things, “the great aide to Iran’s nuclear program,” “the network laughs at Netanyahu’s video,” and “Netanyahu is considering canceling the speech in Congress.” Hefetz replied regarding the latter: “Netanyahu has never considered canceling, it is a complete lie.”
Ben-Zur said that “the American Zionist Organization published an ad in support of Netanyahu’s speech at the congress and criticized other Jewish organizations that saw it as a wrong move. We saw that a long line of opposition groups found expression in the Walla. . Hefetz replied: “I remember being in other media. The position of American Jewry was important to Netanyahu and it was important for him to have a balance on the issue.”
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“It made it clear to me that the site was mobilized for Netanyahu.” Hefetz on Shaul Elovich
(Photo: Yoav Dodkevitz)
Ben Tzur: “You turned to salvation and said to him – ‘This is the link you wanted, can you make an item? Know what happened?’.
object: “No”.
Ben Tzur: “I will renew to you when I say that they waved at you, did not publish anything. Contrary to what the prosecution said, we issued a document from Yifat. So there is a mistake of the prosecution, she wrote that the demand was answered, and she did not respond. That you did not follow Walla all the time. ”
object: “If such a senior person tells me it’s going up, I guess it’s closed.”
Ben-Zur presented Hefetz with various articles published on the website against Netanyahu, to which the State Committee replied that he remembered that the Walla opinion section was critical of Netanyahu – and therefore asked to include a writer “from his side,” as he put it. “I identified with the concept that represents my client’s justice,” Hefetz said. “Not just the prime minister and his family, but the Likud movement. “I thought the report on the dormitory and the Manny Naftali affair was not published by chance, and I turned from an inner sense of justice that I was serving a right purpose, that someone was trying to interfere in influencing the voter in illegitimate ways. Not all work is cynicism and interests.
Netanyahu’s defense attorney demanded the publication of letters of support from the prime minister’s staff, and quoted Hefetz’s messages to Ilan Yeshua in their case. “I turned to him, I did not trust him. I was careful with this man,” Hefetz said. “The letters were in Sarah Netanyahu’s mind. She initiated an interaction with the workers. It was so important to Netanyahu that he dealt with it personally and activated Adv. Yossi Cohen for it to be published. We distributed it everywhere.”
Ben-Zur asked how he interpreted the fact that Walla did not respond to the request, and Hefetz said that in retrospect he was very surprised. Judge Bar-Am asked why, and Hefetz replied: “At that time I was in contact with Elovich who made it clear to me that the site is mobilizing for the prime minister. He said that Ilan Yeshua is like him, the same thing. I assumed the circle was closed. I do not remember if I followed.”
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A video initiated by Yair Netanyahu. Glamine at the Prime Minister’s Residence
Ben-Zur later referred to a video produced at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem with designer Moshik Glamin, who focused on the poor maintenance of the house. Ben-Zur asked if the video had been circulated to the media, and Hefetz replied that it was not necessary because it had gone viral on social media. Hefetz did not mention such a thing, but said that there was a heated debate in the media about it.
The conversation shifted to issues that the election campaign sought to promote, chief among them the political issue, while the media dealt with the State Comptroller’s report on the dormitory’s expenses published in the two weeks before the election. In our opinion, it comes from the law enforcement agencies, and before investigating this is a very difficult feeling. I was next to him and saw how he reacted. It’s a feeling that you are being persecuted. “
Ben-Zur presented correspondence between Yeshua and Yitzhak Herzog, who was then running against Netanyahu in the election. Herzog lamented that his speech in the Gaza Strip was not published on the website while Netanyahu’s speech in Congress was published. Yeshua replied that he had instructed to give the speech in full, adding: “There is nothing for what honor I have.” Hefetz smiled and said: “It is pathetic that salvation is bowing to a prime ministerial candidate. What Herzog is doing is legitimate on his part. Also on Netanyahu’s part. This is how an election campaign should be conducted, the question is what is the role of the media in the middle.”
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Tree of salvation
(Photo: Shalev Shalom, TPS)
Defense counsel began talking about the right-wing and left-wing rallies held in the weeks leading up to the election, and Hefetz said that the storm created by Yair Garbuz’s remarks was, for him, parallel to Dudu Topaz’s “scurrilous speech.” During the conversation between the two, the judge intervened and said: “These documents are in front of us. We know how to read them. What is the added value? That he will come that it is negative coverage? We have already sat on it for three hours today.” Ben-Zur replied that these were material issues.
Afterwards, the interview with Netanyahu on the eve of the Walla election was mentioned. “Yeshua said at trial that he was not a party to the summary of the interview,” Ben-Zur said, and Hefetz vehemently denied it. “The conversations with the prime minister were roaring. The heart of the matter was the commitment given. I had a conversation with Elovich and Yeshua, and the conclusion was with him,” he said. “As much as he says he did not know – it’s a lie, period.” Ben-Zur contacted him once more and said that according to the researchers, he was the one who actually edited the site. “Lie, it’s just ridiculous this thing,” Hefetz said. “Reporters were sure I edited Walla. Everything that was in favor of Netanyahu Ilan Yeshua said ‘Hefetz’. A lie and such. For four years I lived it, it eats me this thing.”
Ben-Zur also mentioned the confrontation in News 12 between Netanyahu and Herzog, who got confused and said, “I will keep Netanyahu united,” instead of Jerusalem. “This is one of the events that decided the election,” Hefetz said. “You see here the prime minister’s ability to set conditions for the interview. They pressured him to come to the studio, with Rina’s success. When he sits at home and he hears the delay can not erupt he said, all our conditions were accepted.” He said that he was sitting 30 cm from Netanyahu during the confrontation – and at that moment Netanyahu realized that he was winning. “In confrontations, a small fall of the other side – you win the whole confrontation. To this day, it has been caught in one of the events that decided his choice. “
Defense counsel heard his remarks and presented the coverage of the confrontation in Walla, where Herzog’s mistake was not included in the headline. “They tried to present a balance, and there is no dispute that Netanyahu won this confrontation by knockout. They corrected the verbal fall and only noted at the end that he was confused in the right line,” Ben-Zur said. Hefetz replied that this was a “distorted representation of the conflict.”
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