Dramatic Netanyahu trial recording has Bezeq CEO urging Walla in Bibi’s favor

The trial against Benjamin Netanyahu renewed Wednesday with a dramatic recording of Bezeq CEO Stella Handler pressuring Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua to provide favorable coverage of the prime minister back when the telecom giant was in need of his regulatory approval. Starting day three of the trial, the January 30, 2017 recording presented Handler as impatient with Yeshua for taking a newly independent and critical tone on the Walla website against Netanyahu after a previous period – between 2013 and 2016 – during which the website favored the prime minister.“This is a mess and you should not go rogue on this,” Handler was heard saying on the recording.Prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh asked Yeshua what business the CEO of Bezeq, a telecommunications company, had interfering with the content published on Walla, a news website.Yeshua said that the owner of both Bezeq and Walla, Shaul Elovitch, sometimes called him to meetings at Bezeq headquarters and that there were a few instances when Handler rebuked him for articles on the Walla site which were critical of Netanyahu.He said that Handler told him these articles could “cause grave damage to Bezeq,” clearly connecting Walla’s coverage of Netanyahu to whether Bezeq would receive favorable government treatment.Yeshua is testifying as part of Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla Affair, in which it is alleged that Netanyahu participated in a media bribery scheme in which he favored Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage that he received from Walla as well as negative coverage the website provided of his political rivals. 

The former Walla CEO recorded Handler as well as other defendants and players in the case and eventually provided the recordings to police, along with a massive number of texts, which collectively broke open Case 4000.
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