Attorney General Mandelblit rejected Attorney Shachar Ben-Meir's petition, which argued that the paper promotes Benjamin Netanyahu exclusively: "Distinguish between ideology and the promotion of a single person"

• Mandelblit Court // Photo: Oren Ben Hakun

Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit rejected the request of Attorney Shachar Ben-Meir to order the opening of a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other factors in connection with the activity of "Israel Today" newspaper.

In response, Adv. Adi Menachem-Bar, on behalf of the USSR, stated that after examining the appeal and other materials provided by the State Prosecutor's Office, no evidentiary foundation was found to warrant opening a criminal investigation - and rejected Ben Meir's position that "Israel Today" was intended to promote Exclusively political Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Advocate Ben Meir argued that an apparent benefit should be considered, which Netanyahu claims he receives from businessman Sheldon Adelson, by operating the newspaper.

The reply letter states that it is important to distinguish between an ideological trend newspaper and a newspaper designed to promote a single person.
This distinction was also based on the determinations set by the then-Election Commission Chairman Justice Salim Jubran in a petition filed by Ben-Meir himself, in which he argued for banned propaganda, and where Jubran's chairman ruled that he had no evidentiary basis to establish a newspaper "Israel today" is intended to promote a political party or a specific person.

In addition, Ben-Meir's argument was rejected that the evidentiary picture within the decision was changed, due to the evidence gathered by the authorities in the 2000 case.