Netanyahu aide Urich received NIS 1.19 million for foreign client work, report says

Yonatan Urich, a senior aide and personal media adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, received NIS 1.19 million for foreign client work between January and September 2024, KAN News reported on Sunday, October 25. Urich is a central suspect in the Qatargate investigations, and his overseas work included projects connected to Qatar.

KAN said Urich received payments from Perception Media, a consulting company owned by Israel (Srulik) Einhorn, while officially working as an external adviser to Netanyahu. Investigative records cited by the broadcaster listed payments of NIS 68,000 in January, NIS 178,000 in February, NIS 99,000 in March, NIS 79,000 in April and NIS 206,000 in May, along with three payments of NIS 178,000 each during August and September.

According to KAN, Urich had no conflict-of-interest arrangement, and his work underwent no security review. Judge Mizrahi broadly accepted his argument concerning his external adviser status, while Judge Michels expressed concerns about the issue.

In a separate report on Sunday evening, N12 News said Netanyahu secretly met a former senior Mossad official in the summer of 2024, several months after October 7. The former official, suspected of involvement in Qatargate, is believed to be the highest-ranking Israeli involved in Qatar's influence operation in Israel. The meeting was absent from Netanyahu's official schedules.

N12 reported that the former official urged Netanyahu to curb harsh comments about Qatar by some ministers. Netanyahu and other government ministers were taking a tough position toward Qatar at the time, while the former official was promoting Qatari interests in Israel. After leaving the Mossad, he pursued business involving Qatar, participated in its World Cup project and continued developing those activities after October 7.

The former official is suspected of helping organize meetings linking Urich and Einhorn with Ali al-Thawadi, a senior Qatari official close to the emir. Participants also gathered in London, Paris and Berlin to discuss a joint project called Lighthouse, which ultimately became an effort to improve Qatar's image.

Investigators with Lahav 433's National Unit for International Investigations suspect Urich helped arrange the Netanyahu meeting with the former Mossad official. Urich, who worked in the Prime Minister's Office and participated in the Qatari project, denied during questioning that he had been asked to organize the meeting or approached by the former official to coordinate meetings with Netanyahu.

Separately, reporting that emerged the previous week linked Urich and Einhorn to political messaging for Romania's AUR party, whose senior figures have faced accusations of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Romanian investigative website Snoop reported that Einhorn sent Urich campaign topics on August 31 and received his approval. A subsequent Romanian-language communications plan proposed social media posts, images, a website article and a video script.

The campaign criticized Romanian President Nicușor Dan and coalition leaders over 120 days without a government. Snoop said similar material appeared from September 2 in official party publications and politicians' social media accounts, raising concerns about European funding and uncertainty for teachers and doctors. Einhorn advised against using images of AUR leader George Simion because of criticism of the party's role in bringing down the government. Party spokesperson Ștefan Avrămescu was among those who later published similar messages.