A crowdfunding campaign has surfaced to help the premier weather the legal storm if he is indicted on bribery charges
An activist from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise donations to help pay the embattled premier’s legal fees.
Netanyahu is facing possible indictments in three separate corruption cases which could be filed before the April 9 national elections.
On Sunday, former Israel police commissioner Roni Alsheikh, whose tenure ended with an acrimonious relationship with the prime minister, whipped up a political tempest when he said, “It’s hard to believe there will not be an indictment for bribery. Legal interpretation has a certain range, [but] at the end of the day the facts are before us.”
The remark elicited angry ripostes from Likud’s rank and file, with the party’s coalition chairman David Amsalem slamming Alsheikh for his “arrogance, chutzpah and boldness.”
After the state comptroller turned down the premier’s request to allow wealthy American benefactors to fund his legal defense, Moshiko Passal, a 29-year-old former reality TV star, launched the crowdfunding campaign.
Passal, a member of Likud’s Central Committee, hopes to raise NIS 1 million ($275,000) by early March. As of press time, the campaign had generated $28,271 in donations from 565 supporters. As is standard procedure with many crowdsourcing websites, the money will only be collected if the benchmark is met.
Passal, who did not respond to a request for an interview, describes himself on the crowdfunding site as a “concerned citizen” who seeks to battle against “external forces trying to oust the prime minister in an anti-democratic way.”
“It’s important to remember that the police and prosecution have invested millions in the cases against the prime minister,” he wrote, adding that “the cost of the defense is unprecedented.” The money, Passal pledged, will be “placed in a trust marked for this purpose only.”
He thanked the campaign’s contributors, saying, “You are proof that the success of the country rests on people rallying together and uniting.”
Tofi Stoler, the reporter for business magazine Calcalist which reported on the story, told The Media Line, “It is legal for political candidates to raise funds through crowdfunding services in Israel, though a regulator—either the state comptroller or the attorney general—will have to sign off on it before the funds can be transferred to Netanyahu.”
Donors can also give any name they choose, she explained. “There’s even one from a ‘Benyamin Netanyahu.’ Their real identities are probably listed in the website’s private records, but it is unlikely the platform will disclose them, unless a court order requires such disclosures.”
Michael Partem, an attorney and Vice Chairman of The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, told The Media Line that his organization took a stand against those benefactors who could create a conflict of interest.
However, he added, “when it comes to crowdsourcing, which requires the approval of a special committee in the state comptroller, such a conflict of interest is reduced to the point that it should be allowed.”
The idea is to prevent cronyism, he said. “But if it is a widely organized crowdsourcing fund—in which everyone gives $50 or $100—then it is not a case where donors are purchasing influence.
“Nobody is going to say ‘I gave $50 so I want a government position.’”
The list of donors would be long and varied, he added. “One question to consider is if the organizers of the crowdsourcing campaign are buying themselves anything unduly because it is being organized by certain people who have vested interests.”
According to Oshri Ben-Ishai, a Tel Aviv defense attorney with experience in both organized crime and cases relating to party politics, the sheer amount of documents and evidence that need sifting will likely mean that Netanyahu’s legal fees will be very high.
The crowdsourcing move is not without precedent, Ben-Ishai said. “[Israeli parliamentarian] Tzachi Hanegbi in 2006 and former president Moshe Katsav in 2009 used crowdsourcing drives via non-profit organizations to help cover legal fees for criminal proceedings, and both got approval to do so,” he told The Media Line.
Though Forbes estimated the Israeli leader’s personal wealth at $11 million in 2015, the mounting legal fees could certainly put a dent in his wallet.
“He will have to take the top lawyers and pay them because if he doesn’t, and they do it pro-bono, it could be seen as another potential case of bribery,” Prof. Shmuel Sandler, an expert on Israeli electoral politics at Bar-Ilan, said, adding that the prime minister is rumored to be “ very cheap.”
Israel Police has already recommended that Netanyahu be indicted for bribery in all three cases against him. In Case 1000, he is accused of accepting lavish gifts in return for favors to wealthy patrons, while in Case 2000 the prime minister allegedly sought to trade positive newspaper coverage in return for benefits given to Yedioth Ahronot owner Arnon Mozes.
According to sources, the strongest evidence against the Israeli leader is in Case 4000 in which he is suspected of orchestrating positive media coverage for himself from the owner of the popular Walla news site in exchange for favors.
Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, accusing the police, the media and the prosecution of waging a witch hunt against him.