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A Hollywood producer conceded that his gifts of champagne and cigars to Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife may have been “excessive”, as he testified at the Israeli prime minister’s corruption trial on Monday.
Arnon Milchan, an Israeli-born billionaire whose blockbuster credits include cinematic hits such as Pretty Woman and Mr and Mrs Smith, is a crucial witness in one of three high-profile cases against Netanyahu, who has ruled Israel for 15 of the last 27 years.
The investigations and subsequent trial, which began in 2020, have hung over Israeli politics for the past half-decade, contributing to a period of political gridlock in which the country held five elections in less than four years.
In the trial, which combines three separate cases known as 1000, 2000 and 4000, prosecutors have charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu has denied all the charges and dismissed them as a politically motivated witch-hunt.
In case 1000, in which Netanyahu faces allegations of fraud and breach of trust, prosecutors say Netanyahu and his wife Sara — who is not on trial — received a “supply line” of gifts worth hundreds of thousands of shekels from Milchan. In exchange, they allege that Netanyahu did various favours, including using his office to lobby for Milchan to receive a multiyear US visa.
In his testimony on Monday, delivered by video link from a conference room in Brighton in the UK where he is now based, Milchan said his gifts to the Netanyahus had not affected his friendship with the couple until police opened an investigation.
When the investigation started, he realised that the gifts were “excessive”, he said. Asked by prosecutors whether he recalled ever having refused a request for gifts, Milchan, who has previously denied that the gifts were bribes, answered: “Not that I remember.”
During his first day of testimony on Sunday, Milchan stressed his close friendship with the Netanyahus, and said the gifts had at first been his initiative. Then, he said, they had become “requests” from the Netanyahus, before eventually “it transformed into a routine”.
Over time, he said, they developed code words for the presents, with expensive shirts known as “dwarfs”, cigars known as “leaves”, and champagne known as “roses”.
“Sometimes the leaves were on my initiative, I’d come visit. At other times [Netanyahu] would ask me: ‘Say, are there any leaves at home? What about the roses?’” Milchan said on Sunday.
Netanyahu’s lawyers have said that the presents were friendly gestures.
On Monday, the 78-year-old film producer — whose testimony is expected to run until the end of next week — acknowledged that he had asked “everyone and their sister, including Netanyahu” for help with his visa.
“All my business was in the US at the time,” Milchan said, adding that an unrenewed visa could harm his livelihood.
Since Netanyahu’s trial began three years ago, its ripples have dominated the Israeli political scene, with political opponents questioning whether it was right for him to hold office while on trial.
Since he returned to power in December after 18 months in opposition, Netanyahu’s critics have also claimed that his government has advanced a controversial overhaul that would rein in the powers of the judiciary in part in response to his legal woes.
Netanyahu and his allies have denied that this is the case, and insisted that the judicial changes they are planning will have no impact on his trial.
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