Region | Palestinian Territories
Opponents and media clamour for Olmert's resignation
Ehud Olmert's opponents and much of Israel's press called on the prime minister to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from an American businessman for close to a decade.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:09 May 9, 2008
Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced calls to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from a businessman in the middle of a police investigation into suspected bribery.
The Maariv tabloid quoted legal sources who said Olmert took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a New York financier tagged "The Laundry Man" in coded records.
Olmert has said he would only resign if the attorney general could produce sufficient evidence to indict him.
The right-wing opposition Likud party is calling for a snap election. Likud MP Yuval Steinitz said Olmert no longer has “public legitimacy, no moral legitimacy."
Shelly Yecimovitch, a member of Olmert's main coalition partner Labour Party, also called on Olmert to resign.
Yecimovitch said Olmert had "proved beyond any shadow of a doubt he cannot distinguish between being a suspect and being a prime minister."
Olmert has defended himself against a handful of other inquiries since he became prime minister in 2006. His son is currently in jail for raising secret funds for his campaign.
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