Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally requested a pardon from President Isaac Herzog on Sunday, a high-stakes maneuver aiming to shut down his long-running corruption trial. Netanyahu framed the request as a necessary step to “heal the nation,” but the move has already ignited fierce backlash from opponents who warn it threatens the country’s rule of law.
In a move the President’s office described as an “extraordinary request” with “significant implications,” Netanyahu is seeking to bypass the judicial process regarding charges of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes. He remains the only sitting prime minister in Israel’s history to face trial, accused in three separate cases of trading official favors for gifts from wealthy backers. He has not been convicted.
The Prime Minister’s office confirmed the submission Sunday, stating the paperwork—comprising a personal letter and a detailed legal argument from his attorney—had been sent to the President’s legal department.
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Netanyahu, who has long decried the proceedings as a “witch hunt” engineered by rivals in the press and police, argued in a video statement that the trial has become a dangerous distraction. With the region facing momentous changes and the country still navigating the fallout of the Hamas-led attacks from October 2023, Netanyahu claimed his mandatory court appearances three times a week hinder his ability to lead.
“The continuation of the trial tears us apart from within, stirs up this division, and deepens rifts,” Netanyahu said in the video. “I am sure, like many others in the nation, that an immediate conclusion of the trial would greatly help to lower the flames and promote the broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs.”
The request follows explicit support from U.S. President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, Trump sent a letter to President Herzog labeling the prosecution “political” and “unjustified,” urging a pardon.
However, the domestic reaction was swift and scathing. Opposition leader Yair Lapid rejected the idea of a pardon without accountability, stating, “You cannot grant him a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate retirement from political life.”
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Civil liberty groups joined the chorus of disapproval. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel warned that erasing charges of such severity for a sitting leader would signal that some citizens are effectively above the law, according to the AP.
Legal experts are also skeptical about the feasibility of the request. Emi Palmor, the former director general of the justice ministry, noted the contradiction in Netanyahu’s approach.
“It’s impossible,” Palmor said. “You cannot claim that you’re innocent while the trial is going on and come to the president and ask him to intervene.” Palmor told the AP that the only standard legal avenue to halt such a trial is for the attorney general to withhold proceedings.
The request now heads to the Justice Ministry for review before being transferred back to the Legal Advisor in the Office of the President for a final opinion.
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