Reuven Rivlin

In April 2020, while Israeli lockdown rules required Passover Seder to be celebrated only with members of one's own household, Rivlin hosted his daughter and her family at the presidential residence. The incident prompted criticism over the example set by leaders during health restrictions.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

During the 2019 election campaign, Rivlin publicly intervened in a controversy triggered by Benjamin Netanyahu's statements about Israel's Jewish national character. The president reiterated that all citizens, Jewish or Arab, were equal before the state and that there should be no first- and second-class citizens.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Rivlin opposed several versions of the Basic Law defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. He warned that certain formulations risked subordinating civic equality and creating a symbolic hierarchy among citizens, placing him in conflict with a significant part of the nationalist right.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

During debate on the so-called Regularisation Law, intended to retroactively legalise certain Israeli outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land, Rivlin warned that the Knesset's application of legislation to territories not officially under Israeli sovereignty could strengthen allegations of apartheid.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

In November 2017, Rivlin rejected a pardon request from Elor Azaria, a soldier convicted of manslaughter after shooting a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian attacker. His decision prompted strong criticism from government officials and a petition by dozens of ministers and parliamentarians asking him to reconsider.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Person targeted by the proceedings

Elor Azaria

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Reuven Rivlin, a long-standing Likud figure, opposed the creation of a separate sovereign Palestinian state and advocated various forms of a single political entity under Israeli sovereignty, while maintaining that Palestinians should enjoy full civil rights within it.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Shortly after Rivlin's election as president, police examined information alleging that he had received monthly payments of several thousand shekels from David Appel more than ten years earlier. The review found no sufficient factual basis, and the Attorney General decided not to open a criminal investigation.

Attribution

Personally implicated

In a series of investigations arising from wiretaps targeting businessman David Appel, police examined, among other matters, the financing of a political event or meal involving Rivlin and assistance he had allegedly provided in obtaining US visas for Appel's children. In April 2004, the Attorney General closed six of the seven cases concerning Rivlin on grounds of absence of guilt.

Attribution

Personally implicated

One of the Appel cases examined suspicions that Rivlin had passed Appel information about a complaint against Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, which allegedly subsequently reached Mordechai and could have interfered with the investigation. The case against Rivlin was closed as part of the overall 2004 decision.

Attribution

Personally implicated

In another aspect of the Appel affairs, investigators examined whether Rivlin, then a member of the Judicial Selection Committee, had passed Appel information from a meeting concerning a female judge's career. The Attorney General subsequently closed the case.

Attribution

Personally implicated

Police examined whether Rivlin's role in legislation shortening certain prison sentences, nicknamed the "Deri law", had been influenced by the political network of David Appel and Aryeh Deri as part of an alleged exchange of political support. This matter was among the cases closed in 2004.

Attribution

Personally implicated