Gantz: If I’m Indicted, I’ll Resign

If he is indicted on corruption charges due to his involvement in the Fifth Dimension (Meimad Hachamishi) scandal, he will immediately resign, Benny Gantz said in an interview Saturday night. Speaking to Channel 12, Gantz said that he would quit, “unlike Prime Minister Netanyahu. I am confident that that will not come about, however.”

Prosecutors announced last week that they would investigate possible illegal activities by the tech firm, focusing on the period that Gantz was the CEO of the company. Documents revealed by Yisrael Hayom last month showed that Israel Police purchased an artificial intelligence system from Fifth Dimension. The purchase was made without a tender, ignoring strictures of the Public Security Ministry, which supervises the activities of the police, and which specifically required contracts of NIS 50 million or more with outside agencies to be approved by the Ministry’s financial department.

The police ignored that requirement, and made the deal with the company, the documents show. Rumors are also circulating that Gantz ilegally pocketed some of the money from the deals.

Gantz said that “there is an aroma of politics in the demand for this investigation, and especially on its timing. But I see the cup as half full. Let the investigators investigate – I am at peace. I am not a suspect and I will not be a suspect.” Regarding his activities in the company, Gantz said “I am convinced that everything I did was proper. A State Comptroller’s report investigated exactly what the police are going to investigate, and things will be clarified properly.”

Meanwhile, a police source said Saturday night that it was likely that police would seek to look at personal devices of Gantz and others involved in the scandal, including former police Chief Roni Alshich.

The source told Channel 13 that there is strong suspicion among investigators that Gantz and others in the company received top secret information from police, and that it was distributed without authorization.

Speaking Saturday night, Labor and Welfare Minister Ofir Akunis said that “the authorities who were so anxious to indict the prime minister even when he was abroad cannot wait even one more day before questioning Benny Gantz in a scandal that affects the pocketbooks of all Israelis.”