© AP Photo / Oded Balilty
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally requested the Knesset to grant him immunity from prosecution amid charges of bribery, corruption and breach of trust.
More than four out of every five Israelis consider their leaders to be corrupt, polling conducted by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research for the annual
Israel Democracy Index report has found.
In polling, 58 percent of respondents said they believed Israeli leaders were 'corrupt' or 'very corrupt', with another 24 percent saying they were 'moderately corrupt'. 16 percent said they believed their leaders were 'not at all' corrupt, and 2 percent had no opinion.
The polling, conducted in May 2019, and asking a sample of 1,014 interviewees their views on a range of issues, also found that Israel's military was the country's 'most trusted' institution, with 90 percent of Israeli Jews and 41 percent of Israeli Arabs saying they 'trust' the Israel Defence Force. President Reuven Rivlin and the Supreme Court also showed high levels of trust (71 percent and 55 percent trust among Jewish respondents, 37 and 56 percent trust among Arabs, respectively). Institutions which Israelis do not trust include the police (44 and 38 percent trust among Jews and Arabs), the media (36 percent trust), the Knesset (30 and 24 percent), the government (30 and 28 percent) and political parties (14 and 20 percent).
Corruption perceptions have been growing steadily since Israel Democracy Index began measuring attitudes. In 2014, just 43 percent of Israelis believed their leaders were corrupt.
Comment: There's more data available that reveals more about this situation. Apparently the judge who convicted the teen has been accused of hating women after he previously threw out another rape case two years ago, despite 'strong evidence'.
Referring to the British teen's case a forensic pathologist, Dr Marios Matsakis, said the British teenager may have been drugged, claims he said were not properly investigated.
He added that the failure to properly examine evidence against the 12 Israelis made him 'ashamed as a Cypriot'. Describing the judge, Dr Matsakis said 'my impression is he hates women'.
She also told The Mail: 'I have no doubts that violence was exercised on the body.'
The judge's behavior during the trial was rather out of line as well. From the Daily Mail: Sounds like the court system in Cyprus is just as bad as it is in Italy.