Attorney General declines judges' proposal to attend closed Netanyahu trial hearing

Israel's Attorney General will not come before the judges hearing the criminal cases against Benjamin Netanyahu, the state prosecution informed the court on Wednesday morning, according to a news alert published by Ynet. The alert said the prosecution told the court that the Attorney General would not attend hearings in the Netanyahu cases.

The announcement came as a further session in the trial opened that morning. N12 legal reporter Yael Yaffe wrote that the backdrop to the day's session was an idea floated by the judges at the previous hearing: to call the Attorney General to appear before them behind closed doors. Minutes later, Yaffe reported that the Attorney General had turned that idea down.

What the judges proposed

Based on the N12 reports, the judges had suggested at their last session that the Attorney General be summoned to a hearing held in closed session, meaning without the public or the press present. Neither outlet has reported what the judges wanted to discuss with her, why they thought a closed setting was appropriate, or whether the proposal was framed as a request or as something closer to a formal summons.

The two organisations describe the response in slightly different terms. Ynet's alert speaks of the Attorney General not appearing at hearings in the Netanyahu cases in general, while N12 frames it more narrowly as a rejection of the judges' specific proposal that she attend a hearing. The reports available so far do not make clear whether the prosecution's message to the court went beyond the single closed-door session the judges had in mind.

Who the Attorney General is in the Israeli system

The Hebrew title used in both reports, ha-yoetzet ha-mishpatit la-memshala, often shortened to yoamashit, translates as "legal adviser to the government". The feminine form indicates that the post is currently held by a woman. The office combines two roles that many other countries separate. The Attorney General is the government's chief legal adviser, whose interpretation of the law binds ministries, and she also stands at the head of the public prosecution system, with final authority over decisions to indict senior officials.

Day-to-day courtroom work in criminal cases is carried out by state prosecutors from the State Attorney's Office, referred to in Hebrew simply as ha-praklitut, "the prosecution". It was this body, rather than the Attorney General personally, that relayed the message to the judges on Wednesday, according to Ynet.

The "Thousands" trial

N12 refers to the proceedings as mishpat ha-alafim, "the Thousands trial". The nickname comes from the police file numbers assigned to the separate investigations that were later combined into the criminal case against Netanyahu, each of which was numbered in the thousands. Israeli media use the label as shorthand for the trial as a whole.

The trial is heard by a panel of judges, and hearings in it are usually open to the public. A request that the head of the prosecution system herself come before the bench, and in a closed session, departs from that routine, which is part of why the exchange drew live coverage from both outlets on Wednesday morning.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports gives the reasons the Attorney General or the prosecution offered for declining, or quotes from what was said in court. They do not say how the judges responded to the refusal, whether they intend to press the matter or drop it, or whether Netanyahu's defence team took a position on the proposal. It is also not yet clear from the material whether the refusal covers only the closed-door session or any appearance by the Attorney General in the trial, a point on which the Ynet and N12 wording differs.