Israel's Central Elections Committee chairman, Justice Noam Sohlberg, has instructed Shin Bet Director David Zini to investigate what he called "serious suspicions of unlawful influence on the elections through foreign funding from outside parties working against the Israeli interest," following the high turnout of Arab voters in the October 27 election for the 26th Knesset, Israel Hayom reported. In his letter, Sohlberg wrote, "I cannot attest to the nature of these suspicions," and asked the Shin Bet to use its powers to find evidence "to substantiate these suspicions or refute them," with findings due within a week because of the deadlines for election appeals and the publication of final results.
The suspicions under review involve the transfer of funds from Arab countries affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to encourage voters in Arab society to go to the polls. Likud officials claim they submitted evidence that Qatar and Turkey transferred funds to encourage Arab voters, but the initial information reached Sohlberg from the Shin Bet, which has been examining the matter for several weeks, and did not necessarily rely on the materials submitted by Likud. Qatar denied any involvement, Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas called the claims incitement, and police reported no evidence of widespread fraud at polling stations.
Israel markets its elections as proof of its democracy, but once Palestinians inside Israel turned out in large numbers, and Arab parties won about 19 seats in preliminary counts, Netanyahu's Likud labeled the matter "Ra'amgate" and accused Arab parties of bribery and interference to undermine the right-wing government.
Netanyahu's son Yair Netanyahu was among the first to react on X. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit party won only seven seats, also posted on X about the Shin Bet investigation. Netanyahu then shared the Likud statement on his own account. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot responded on X. Qatar's response came from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari, also on X.
Two weeks before the vote, Likud and Religious Zionism, led by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, announced that they would send some 2,000 activists to hundreds of polling stations in Arab communities, citing a "long series of fraud incidents," while Central Elections Committee director Dean Livne said, "There is no fraud in Israel." Even before voting began, Likud was reported to be preparing to allege that the election was "stolen" if Netanyahu lost.
On election day, Netanyahu accused Ra'am operatives of "trying to steal the election from us," and residents of Rahat told The Times of Israel that Ben Gvir's home demolitions in Bedouin communities were why they voted.
