State witness Nir Hefetz: Netanyahu was involved in controlling the media like in security

After a postponement of about a week, Nir Hefetz, who was the spokesman and communications adviser to opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his family, appeared for the first time in the Netanyahu trial on Monday morning. Hefetz's testimony in the Jerusalem District Court is considered key testimony - Regarding the 4000 case, in which Netanyahu is accused of bribery of fraud and breach of trust, however, parts of his testimony are also expected to touch on cases 1000 and 2000. Hefetz is expected to testify at trial for many weeks. Nir Hefetz is a key state witness.
The chairman of the opposition, former Prime Minister Netanyahu, also appeared in court.
Hefetz claims in his testimony that he met several times with former Bezeq owners Shaul Alovich, and that he "courted" him to convey messages to the former prime minister, regarding regulatory matters surrounding the beekeeping deal of Bezeq and yes.
He noted that at one of the meetings "Elowitz told me that the doors of the website (Walla) are open, he asked me to hold a meeting with CEO Yeshua. The message was that anything I want from Shaul I can ask for salvation and he will take care of me - that is, for me, it is for Benjamin Netanyahu. "He noted that Netanyahu knew that the connection between the parties had been established," and that I was working with them properly. "
Hefetz further said that the meetings with Elovich were usually held at his home, in private. "When I entered, I would leave my cellphone at the entrance," he testified. According to him, this is a common practice among employees around the prime minister, who do not stay with him with a cellphone: "Then you adopt it in life, in any conversation that can be discreet in nature, I did not see anything unusual in it."
He was asked what was being said at these meetings, and replied: "The meetings that were at home at the time and that Mr. Elovich initiated, dealt with the concerns and desires of Mr. Elovich from the Minister of Communications. His meetings were about who would be the Minister of Communications." However, after it was already clarified who will be the Minister of Communications - that is, Netanyahu himself who took office in November 2014 - "So we moved on to other issues - the nature or identity of the Director General of the Ministry of Communications Signing a Bezeq deal - yes. "
According to Hefetz, Elovich sought to pass on his complaints to the prime minister regarding the regulatory requirements for the deal. "He claimed that Arden and the CEO of his office, Berger, were blackmailing him by making the approval of the yes deal conditional on him advancing and reaching an outline in the wholesale market. His claim was that in exchange for approving the Bezeq-yes deal, Bezeq had invested heavily in infrastructure and after it had implemented it, the new condition suddenly emerged - and that was de facto extortion. Another argument was that the non-approval of the yes deal would harm Bezeq's ability to invest in infrastructure in the future. "
Hefetz added: "These complaints from Elovich kept coming back. Elovich wanted to convey this message to Netanyahu. The reason why at that time I was so reluctant to convey messages to the prime minister. "Netanyahu is not in a hurry to invite tycoons to his office. Therefore, my channel, in Mr. Elovich's view, was Priceless then."
The testimony goes to Hefetz's relationship with Shaul Alovich, the former owners of Bezeq. Hefetz says that when he returned to work with the Netanyahu family in 2014, "Netanyahu instructed me to contact and meet with Elowitz - and that he will be the sole and exclusive contact person for conveying his messages on media issues related to the Walla website."
He was asked if he was explained why he turned to Bezeq's controlling shareholder, and replied: "It is Netanyahu's policy to turn to the owner of a media outlet. The controlling shareholder is the owner of the century, this is a worldview. "The owner, or another significant figure. It was no exception."
Prosecutor Tabenkin asked Hefetz what he knew about the fact that former minister Gilad Ardan was replaced in the Ministry of Communications, and he replied that the decision was made by Netanyahu following consultations with his family, and his son Yair: "It was unequivocally decided that only Netanyahu would be communications minister." According to Hefetz, "the perception was that any other minister, the media would bend him in his power and in fact tame him, and no one would be able to stand in front of the media, in front of Netanyahu himself. I then thought it was a right thought."

Hefetz goes on to testify, and recounts Netanyahu's extensive involvement in the media business - and said that his level of involvement in this field was at least as good as in the field of security during his time as prime minister. "It's hard to put into words, whoever is not found and sees will not believe how important this issue is to him," he said. "Netanyahu is far beyond 'freak control' ... in media matters he wants to know everything - to the most remote corner."
Hefetz said that "even in security meetings we would put notes in it - there was a procedure." He said his control of the media was "decided." He added: "The scope is enormous from what one tends to think or comes out. Dealing with media issues, if we could measure in time, is at least like a matter of security. "Hefetz emphasized that he did not believe that Netanyahu had neglected security matters, an issue that he said was" of the highest concern. "
He confirmed Prosecutor Tabenkin's remarks regarding his statement in the refresher conversation with the prosecution, which was held with him before the testimony, according to which whenever there was an issue with "explosive potential," he said of Netanyahu that "the administration of the state stopped for half a day. .
Simultaneously with Hefetz's testimony in court, this morning the prosecution updated that Netanyahu's former adviser testified that the former prime minister did not send him to talk to Shlomo Pilber, the former director general of the Ministry of Communications, about issues related to Shaul Alovich - former Bezeq owners accused in the 4000 case By bribing Netanyahu.
The update was delivered this morning to the lawyers of the various defendants - according to the prosecution following refresher talks held for the object in preparation for his testimony this morning. Netanyahu or one of his men was quick to post on his social media accounts a link to reports of this update, alongside the caption: "Another day when the stitched files continue to collapse."
Hefetz has served as Netanyahu's and his family's communications consultant since 2014.