Draft of Netanyahu’s post trial speech: ‘I cannot hold back anymore’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a speech at the end of the first hearing of his trial on Monday, Israeli media reported.

The Walla News website obtained an earlier draft of the speech.

“My words come from the blood of my heart. I say them in great pain, I too am a human being,” Netanyahu is to say at the end of Monday’s hearing, according to Walla. “When you have illegal tracking, for no reason, against my son, when you have witch hunts against my family and I, when you scrutinize the person rather than his crime – that is very difficult.

“The details of the trial will take place in court, but this is also a public struggle, I cannot let this go by, that is the reason for my outcry.”

The report notes that the speech draft also has a part in which Netanyahu references Liat Ben-Ari, the lead prosecutor in the trial against him, and the former CEO of Walla!, Ilan Yeshua, who will be testifying in the trial.

In the draft speech, Netanyahu also raises complaints against the way the prosecution managed the investigation itself. He claims that the investigation disregarded the rule of law by deleting recordings, conducting illegal searches, pressuring witnesses and leaking materials to the press.

The Jerusalem District Court on Monday will hear the prosecution’s opening statement and the first witness in the first-ever public corruption trial of a sitting prime minister.

Netanyahu is expected to personally attend for the opening statement portion and then leave before Yeshua is called to the stand.