Will Netanyahu be pardoned?
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the country's president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon over corruption cases he has been battling. We speak to an opposition member of the Israeli Knesset who opposes a potential pardon for Mr Netanyahu.
Also on the programme: local media in Hong Kong report that police have arrested a university student who was part of a group petitioning for an independent inquiry into the huge, deadly fire at a housing complex; and the musical featuring Britain’s most beloved bear, Paddington.
(Photo: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.3 | Hello and welcome to News Hour. |
| 0:11.7 | It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. |
| 0:16.2 | I'm Tim Franks. |
| 0:17.5 | We're beginning with the news that the Israeli Prime Minister, Binimeneiou, has requested a pardon from the country's |
| 0:23.2 | President Isaac Herzog. Mr. Netanyahu has been on trial for the past five years on charges of |
| 0:29.4 | bribery, fraud and breach of trust. This request for a pardon has not come out of the blue. |
| 0:36.1 | Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon? |
| 0:43.2 | Donald Trump making the call six weeks ago, turning to a rather bemuse-looking Isaac Herzog, |
| 0:50.7 | as Mr. Trump delivered a speech in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Mr. Trump followed up that |
| 0:56.8 | initial request a couple of weeks ago with a letter to President Herzog. Isaac Herzog politely pointed |
| 1:03.1 | out that for the Israeli president's office to consider a pardon, the request had to come from the person |
| 1:07.8 | seeking that pardon. Well, today it has. Binimin Netanyahu himself put out a |
| 1:13.9 | two-minute-long video statement explaining why he'd done so. Among the reasons, this. |
| 1:23.0 | The continuation of the trial is tearing us apart from within, fueling divisions, deepening rifts. |
| 1:30.0 | I am certain, as are many others, that an immediate conclusion of the trial will greatly help to lower the flames |
| 1:36.5 | and promote the broad reconciliation our country so badly needs. |
| 1:41.9 | Mr Netanyahu added that he was also thinking about Israel's relations with the United States. |
| 1:49.6 | In addition, I couldn't ignore the repeated appeals made by President Trump to the President of the state. |
| 1:57.0 | President Trump has called for an immediate end to the trial so that I can, together with him, advance even further vital interests shared by Israel and the United States within a time window that may never return. |
| 2:12.0 | And as for how President Herzog may react to this formal submission contained in a 111-page document sent by Mr. Netanyahu's lawyers. |
| 2:21.7 | This is what Anshilfeffer, Israel correspondent for the economist, had to tell me. |
... |
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