He spoke on Sunday as he arrived at a Jerusalem courthouse for the start of his trial.

He called the trial an "attempt to eliminate the will of the people" and an "attempt to depose a strong right-wing leader."

Netanyahu accused police and prosecutors of conspiring to "tailor"a case against him and called the claims "contaminated" and exaggerated.

Several members of his Likud party stood alongside him in support.

Netanyahu is set to appear at the opening hearing at a Jerusalem district court, after his request to have his lawyers represent him instead was rejected.

His court appearance comes just days after the long-serving leader swore in his new government, breaking more than a year of political stalemate following three inconclusive elections.

Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in a series of corruption cases stemming from ties to wealthy friends.

He is accused of accepting lavish gifts and offering to grant favours to powerful media moguls in exchange for favorable coverage of him and his family.

Netanyahu and his allies have spent months lashing out the country's law enforcement system, and the charges against him have deeply divided the nation.

Ahead of the trial, two sets of protests and counter-protests gathered outside the courthouse and the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem.

Dozens of Netanyahu supporters outside the District Court in east Jerusalem wore masks with the prime minister's face and held posters lambasting the attorney general who indicted him.

"We won't allow an image of Netanyahu being humiliated," said Ran Carmi Buzaglo, one of the protesters at the court. "The only reason that they forced him to come here, even though the law allows him to be absent, is to show an image of him in the defendant's chair."

Across town, several hundred anti-Netanyahu demonstrators gathered outside his residence wearing face masks and t-shirts with the words "crime minister" and bearing posters calling for his resignation. They faced off across police barricades with the prime minister's backers.

Australian Associated Press