Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial postponed under emergency order to May 24

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial was postponed on Sunday until May 24 after Justice Minister Amir Ohana issued an order in the middle of the night to shift all court activity to a “state of extraordinary emergency.”

Ohana’s emergency order will be in force for 24 hours and is expected to be extended. All non-urgent court sessions with the exception of bail hearings and High Court of Justice hearings are postponed under the order.

The district courts – Netanyahu’s trial was due to open Tuesday in the Jerusalem District Court – were included in the order and led the court to issue the postponement.

Ohana’s office reported that further steps would be examined and taken.

According to the Justice Ministry, court sessions that will be allowed while the order is in effect will be urgent requests to postpone evacuation or demolition, deportations and arrests among other issues.

The NGO Movement for Quality Government filed a petition Sunday morning to block the postponement as well as a request that Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit freeze Ohana’s order.

According to the NGO, “Minister Ohana is an interim minister in an interim government that has never gotten the confidence of the public.”

The movement added that “the regulations stand in conflict with Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, possibly amounting to a grave, unconstitutional violation of human rights, and were never approved by the Knesset.”

On Saturday night, Netanyahu announced that counter-terrorism measures would be used to identify and track potential coronavirus patients. The measures, allowing state security services to track citizen’s phones, were condemned by politicians across the political spectrum.

Mandelblit’s office approved Netanyahu’s regulation allowing the Israeli Security Service (Shin Bet) to surveil Israeli citizens, “subject to limitations, particularly concerning the period they would be in effect.”

Former defense minister MK Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon (Blue and White) responded to Netanyahu’s new regulations, saying on Twitter that “everyone who criticized us when we warned against becoming [Turkish President Tayyip] Erdogan’s Turkey should acknowledge and understand the cynical exploitation of the coronavirus crisis for the personal interests of a defendant before trial.”

Former justice minister MK Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) tweeted that “the technological surveillance after coronavirus patients is a radical move and a grave violation of privacy, but it can save lives and money to the state.”

Leon Sverdlov contributed to this story.