PM Netanyahu earns storm of outrage for suggesting his aides are being ‘held hostage’ in Qatargate investigation

Hostage families and opposition leaders slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he said his two aides, who are being investigated in the Qatargate probe, are being “held hostage.”

In a day full of dramatic political developments, Netanyahu was whisked away to Jerusalem in the middle of his court testimony in Tel Aviv after being summoned for an open testimony about the Qatargate affair.

Earlier on Monday, police arrested Eli Feldstein and Yonatan Urich, who both serve as close aides to the prime minister. After his open testimony, which did not bring to light any information implicating Netanyahu directly, he released an outraged video statement.

Showing himself shocked at the lack of evidence, Netanyahu declared, “I understood that there was a political investigation here, but I didn't know to what extent. They are holding Jonathan Urich and Eli Feldstein hostage.”

Despite using the word “bnei aruba,” rather than the commonly used term for the Israeli hostages, “hatufim,” which translates more correctly to “abductees,” Netanyahu’s statement drew harsh criticism.

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz wrote on 𝕏: “Our hostages [bnei aruba], who were kidnapped on your watch, are not those who worked with Qatar during the war and were detained for one day for interrogation, but people who have been languishing with the enemy in the tunnels for 542 days.”

“This nation deserves a leader who will clear the entire schedule, call the members of the negotiation team, and give them one task: a deal to return all the kidnapped,” Gantz said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that the hostage families were “angry and hurt by the unfortunate choice of words by the prime minister.”

“Netanyahu - you are confused. Let me remind you, the real hostages are our 59 brothers and sisters who have been held in Gaza for 542 days,” the Forum stated.

Several family members of hostages attacked the prime minister as well. “Mr. Abandonment finally found out what's going on with David and Ariel Cunio, Matan Angrest, and Elkana Bohbot! They're simply being held hostage! He finally understood! Even today, the way to release the hostages is a life-saving agreement and an end to the war,” wrote Shai Mozes, nephew of released hostage Gadi Mozes.

Apart from the controversial passage, Netanyahu’s video message focused on his claims that the testimony showed that the police had no clear evidence in the Qatargate affair, which he characterized as a witch hunt against him.

Netanyahu said that the police originally told him the questioning would take four hours. “After an hour, they ran out of questions. They took a break of an hour and a half, came back for ten minutes. I said, ‘Show me material. Show me something.’ And they had nothing to show,” the prime minister remarked.

“They are making [Urich and Feldstein’s] lives miserable for nothing at all. This is a political hunt. It is intended for only one purpose, to prevent the dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet as if there was some affair here. There is nothing here. And also to bring about the overthrow of a right-wing prime minister. A political investigation, a political hunt, that's what we have here. There is nothing else here.”

Amit Hadad, who serves as a lawyer both for Urich as well as Netanyahu, said on Tuesday he would request the court to lift the unusually broad gag order on the case to expose “the absurd allegations.”

“This case has no evidence, just hot air manufactured for media purposes,” Hadad charged.

“We can’t let law enforcement hide and blur the truth with gag orders when we are talking about such serious accusations against the good name of a person and his basic rights,” he added.

Meanwhile, the police asked the court to extend the detention of the suspects for nine days and said that Urich is suspected of passing secret information to a foreign agent.

They are also suspected of contacting a foreign agent, fraud, money laundering and bribery.