Protesters Urge Netanyahu to Step Down
WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv on Friday to urge Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign after police recommended he be charged with bribery in two corruption cases.
Police said on Tuesday enough evidence had been found for Netanyahu to be charged, saddling the four-term premier with one of the biggest challenges to his long dominance of the occupying regime’s politics.
Netanyahu, 68, denies wrongdoing in both cases and has said nothing will come of the police investigations. It is now up to the attorney general to determine whether to press charges against him.
Around 1,000-2,000 protesters rallied in a Tel Aviv square, some with signs saying "crooks go home” and "crime minister”.
"We think the prime minister should immediately disqualify himself and resign,” said Shlomit Bar, 63, a retired music teacher. "He cannot be any longer the prime minister of Israel.”
Netanyahu is currently under probe over suspicions that he accepted 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran for campaign funds during the 2009 elections.
There are also calls for Netanyahu to be investigated for his role in a billion-dollar deal to purchase three submarines from German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH.
Netanyahu's personal lawyer and one of his closest confidants, David Shimron, reportedly represented the German company behind the submarine contract.
The Zionist prime minister, in an apparently unrelated case, is also subjected to accusations that he and his spouse misappropriated public funds to pay for private expenses, ranging from laundry to ice cream.
Police said on Tuesday enough evidence had been found for Netanyahu to be charged, saddling the four-term premier with one of the biggest challenges to his long dominance of the occupying regime’s politics.
Netanyahu, 68, denies wrongdoing in both cases and has said nothing will come of the police investigations. It is now up to the attorney general to determine whether to press charges against him.
Around 1,000-2,000 protesters rallied in a Tel Aviv square, some with signs saying "crooks go home” and "crime minister”.
"We think the prime minister should immediately disqualify himself and resign,” said Shlomit Bar, 63, a retired music teacher. "He cannot be any longer the prime minister of Israel.”
Netanyahu is currently under probe over suspicions that he accepted 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran for campaign funds during the 2009 elections.
There are also calls for Netanyahu to be investigated for his role in a billion-dollar deal to purchase three submarines from German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH.
Netanyahu's personal lawyer and one of his closest confidants, David Shimron, reportedly represented the German company behind the submarine contract.
The Zionist prime minister, in an apparently unrelated case, is also subjected to accusations that he and his spouse misappropriated public funds to pay for private expenses, ranging from laundry to ice cream.