Hostage families petition to investigate if PM's criminal trials affected war decisions

A group of family members of hostages and parents of soldiers and reservists petitioned the High Court of Justice on Thursday to demand that the Attorney General’s Office check whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime decisions were affected by his ongoing criminal trial.

The petitioners, represented by Adv. Dafna Holtz Lechner wrote that they had sent a letter on May 8 in which they inquired about whether the prime minister’s conflict of interest agreement, which he signed in 2020, applied to his decision-making regarding the war. The petitioners said that they had not received an answer and demanded that the High Court direct the attorney to answer immediately.

The May 8 letter to the attorney-general was based on a High Court ruling days before. The ruling turned down a petition similar to the current one but noted that if the Attorney-General, Gali Baharav-Miara, believed that there was a conflict of interest between the prime minister running the war and his criminal trial, she would need to update the agreement accordingly.

Hostage families claim against Netanyahu

The petitioners argued, for example, that Netanyahu had requested several delays in his criminal trial due to his being busy running the war. This showed that the prime minister had an incentive to prolong the war as a means to delay his trial.

Further, the petitioners said in a statement that they had also argued that they were the citizens most affected by decisions regarding the war and that decisions by the prime minister could impact them immensely regarding either the length and scope of reserve duty, the danger to soldiers, the well being of the hostages or all the above.

Holtz Lechner said in the statement, “We have heard politicians and security officials saying every day that in issues that are fateful for the State of Israel and its citizens, Netanyahu has acted based on personal considerations and not on the national interest. If this is indeed the case, the attorney-general must act with utmost urgency to respond to the request by those who paid and continue to pay the price of the failure [on October 7] and the ongoing war.”