Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Monday in his testimony in his criminal trial that his relationships with billionaires Arnon Milchan and James Packer stemmed from true friendship, and were not based on any ulterior motives, or the fact that they gave him gifts.

Netanyahu denied he helped Milchan, an esteemed Hollywood movie producer, with his efforts to obtain a long-term US visa, and ridiculed the prosecution’s efforts to assert that Milchan used his ties with the prime minister to promote his business interests in Tinseltown.

Netanyahu also insisted that he had a real friendship with Packer, and rejected the prosecution’s claim that he made burdensome demands for luxury gifts from the Australian businessman, saying sarcastically that Packer had been able to “cope” with giving him a box of cigars from time to time.

Following the end of the court’s lunchtime recess, but before the judges had returned to the courtroom, a member of the viewing public launched a verbal assault at the prime minister, telling him to “wipe the smile off his face” and “bring back the hostages.

Netanyahu’s attorney Amit Hadad protested vehemently to the judges when they returned, accusing court security guards of intervening too late and threatening to “get up and leave” if such an incident recurred.

Netanyahu, testifying in cross-examination by the prosecution for the third time on Monday, answered questions regarding Case 1000, in which he is accused of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly providing various favors to Milchan, who gave the prime minister and his family luxury goods worth hundreds of thousands of shekels.

In his cross-examination, prosecutor Yonatan Tadmor of the State Attorney’s Office repeatedly sought to assert that Milchan was only interested in friendship with Netanyahu for........

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