The Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, has recognized on Wednesday what for years denied vehemence: that his government allowed the transfer of millions of dollars from Qatar to the Gaza Strip with the aim of keeping the Palestinian factions divided. “The policy that led to allowing to transfer money to Gaza was unanimously accepted by the security cabinet,” he said at a press conference in Jerusalem. And he added, without surroundings: “Why was it? Because we wanted to keep Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority (ANP) divided.”
His words are a flying regarding his own statements of November 2023, when he described as “ridiculous” the accusations that Israel was facilitating the financing of the Islamist group. Now he tries to uncheck personally and stressed that the measure “was transferred on the recommendation of Shin Bet and Mossad.”
According to Shin Bet’s own investigation, Catar sent about 30 million dollars a month to Gaza, a good part of which ended up in the hands of Hamas’s armed arm. Although transfers were justified as part of a strategy of ‘divide and win’, these funds would have contributed to the preparation of the attack of October 7, 2023, which left more than 1,200 dead and about 250 kidnapped in Israel.
The ‘Qatargate’ explults and reaches Netyahu
Netanyahu’s turn comes in full advance of the case known as Qatargate, an investigation for alleged corruption that has already fully splashed its closest environment. The scandal exploded after the arrest of two of his advisors, Eli Feldstein and Yonathan Urich, accused of receiving tasting payments in exchange for promoting messages favorable to Emirate in Israeli media. Netanyahu himself declared a witness in March.
This Wednesday, he went out of time with a challenging tone: “This is a big lie. They want to insinuate that I received something. I even listened to someone to say that I received a fortune of Qatar. I did not receive a single sequel,” he said. And he warned: “Who said it was already sued, and whoever says it will be sued again.”
The institutional crisis has climbed even more after the Supreme Court of Israel declared “illegal” the dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, who headed the investigation of the Qatargate. In a blunt ruling, Judges Isaac Amar, Noam Sohlberg and Daphne Barak-Erez said the decision was made “without foundations” and without formal hearing, and accused Netanyahu of incurring a “serious conflict of interest.”
Far from complying with the ruling, the prime minister charged against the judicial decision: “He is shameful and harms democracy and national security.” He also confirmed that he will appoint a successor for Bar, although the Supreme Court had suspended the cessation while solving the pending resources.
In addition, Netanyahu lasted again against the State Attorney General, Gali Baharav Miara, whom she accused of partiality: “She is the one who has a conflict of interest. It is like a camel that does not see the hump.”
The Prime Minister justified at the time the dismissal of bar for the security failures of October 7. However, the former head of Shin Bet denied that version and assured that he was separated by refusing to show the “total obedience” that Netanyahu demanded in the middle of the crisis with the courts.
From the opposition and part of the citizenship, the dismissal is interpreted as an undercover punishment for investigating a plot of corruption in which the Government would have facilitated the entry of millions of the Emirate in exchange for favors. A scandal that does not stop growing and has already reached the heart of power in Israel.
