Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out retiring from politics in exchange for a pardon from his corruption case, defying demands from Israeli opposition figures.
Netanyahu last week submitted an official pardon request to the Israeli president, triggering protests and outcry among his political rivals.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid joined other political leaders demanding Netanyahu publicly admit guilt and retire from politics in exchange for clemency.
On Sunday, the prime minister was asked whether he would be prepared to retire during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Jerusalem, to which he replied "no".
Netanyahu – Israel's longest-serving prime minister - is fighting three separate cases of corruption on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a trial that has dragged on for more than five years.
Hearings have frequently been cancelled since October 2023, leading to accusations that he is using Israel's multiple wars in the region to delay proceedings.
He denies all allegations of wrongdoing.
Netanyahu has also been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Israeli military's destruction of Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has weighed in on Netanyahu's side and has repeatedly called for the charges to be dropped.
In a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog last month, Trump formally requested a pardon, calling the case a "political, unjustified prosecution".
The Jerusalem District Court and have rebuffed the US president's demands.
"Israel, naturally, is a sovereign country and we fully respect the Israeli legal system and its requirements," Herzog said earlier this week.
The president in September suggested he could grant a pardon, saying that the case "weighs heavily on Israeli society".
In his pardon request, Netanyahu argued that it was in Israel's national interest for the charges against him to be dropped.
The request triggered protests outside Herzog's house rejecting a pardon and backlash among opposition parties across the spectrum.
"I call on President Herzog: You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and an immediate withdrawal from political life," liberal Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid said in a video on X.
Naftali Bennett, the ultranationalist former prime minister, also said that Netanyahu would have to retire in exchange for a pardon.