Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Thursday ordered a criminal investigation be opened into the alleged ties between officials working in the Prime Minister’s Office and Qatar.
The announcement followed recent revelations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents, worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed top Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories.
The Attorney General’s Office said the decision to launch an investigation was made following a meeting between Baharav-Miara, State Attorney Amit Aisman, the head of the police’s investigations and intelligence department, and professional officials in the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service.
In that meeting, “information was presented as to the connection between elements working in the Prime Minister’s Office and elements connected to the state of Qatar,” the Attorney General’s Office stated.
The investigation will be carried out by the Shin Bet and the police.
The Attorney General’s announcement Thursday came after opposition MKs urged an investigation to be opened into the alleged Qatar ties.
“There is a suspicion of treason in the Prime Minister’s Office that must be investigated,” Democrats chair Yair Golan declared earlier this month. “All of the Prime Minister’s Office staff who were in contact with Qatar must be immediately investigated. And Netanyahu himself must be investigated.”
According to a report on Channel 12 news earlier this month, during his tenure in the Prime Minister’s Office, Feldstein was also employed by a Qatar-funded company to improve public perception of Doha around the Gulf country’s role in hostage deal mediation between Israel and Hamas. The company was not named in the report, which also did not offer a source for the allegations against Feldstein.
According to Channel 12, Feldstein held conversations with several journalists in which he presented Qatar as having a “positive role” in negotiations, and that the Qatar-funded firm that employed Feldstein was working to promote contacts between families of the hostages and authorities in Doha.
The work allegedly took place at the same time that Netanyahu was publicly condemning Qatar as a backer of the Hamas terror group.
Feldstein’s lawyers firmly denied the allegations, and Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri said “we’re not familiar with any such thing.”
Two other Netanyahu advisers — Jonatan Urich and Yisrael Einhorn — were reported last year to be involved in a campaign to improve Qatar’s image surrounding hosting the 2022 World Cup.
Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Qatar, but the two countries established trade relations in 1996, which lasted until 2009, when Doha severed them due to a previous round of fighting between Israel and Gaza.
Netanyahu’s Likud party lashed out at the decision to open an investigation into the allegations, claiming those behind the decision realized the criminal corruption cases against the premier are falling apart and therefore are now targeting Netanyahu’s staff.
“As the trumped up cases against Prime Minister Netanyahu crumble in court, new and false cases are being manufactured against his people due to the personal interests of those leading the investigation. We see you,” the statement said.
Democrats MK Gilad Kariv said attorney general’s decision to open a criminal investigation following his party’s request “makes it clear why Netanyahu and his partners activated the poison machine at full power against anyone who had dealings with Qatar.”
The Movement for Quality Government also welcomed the decision but stated it was “not enough,” saying “all those involved must be immediately removed from the Prime Minister’s Office and his entourage.”
“It is not possible for people being investigated on suspicion of improper ties with a foreign country to continue to serve in the most classified and sensitive office in the State of Israel, in a manner that poses a real danger to the security of the state in times of war,” the group added.
Feldstein, a former military spokesman for Netanyahu, also stands accused of helping leak pilfered military documents to the press with the intent of swaying public opinion against a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, which at the time was opposed by the government.
He was arrested in November as part of a major investigation into the leaks. If convicted, Feldstein could be sentenced to life in prison for the alleged offenses.
Urich and Einhorn have also been implicated in the case.