Israel election: Authorities dispute Netanyahu’s fraud claims

Israel woke up on Thursday to allegations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party that foreign actors may have sought to influence voter mobilization efforts in Arab communities during this week's legislative election. 

No'am Sohlberg, the Supreme Court judge who heads Israel's Central Election Committee, sent a letter to Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet to look into the Likud's claims. 

According to Likud's statement, Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List — which received a record share of the vote, mostly due to unprecedented turnout in communities of Arab and Palestinians with Israeli citizenship — allegedly used "severe criminal offenses" to spur voters to go to the polls, including bribery, threats and other forms of election fraud. 

"Severe suspicions were brought to my attention about improper intervention in the elections by foreign funding by outside actors that act against the Israeli interest," Sohlberg wrote in the letter, adding that he was "unable to testify" as to whether the allegations are true. 

"The elections in the State of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party claimed in a statement. His own coalition lost seats, leaving both the prime minister and his opponents short of a majority — unless they were to work with one or both of the Arab parties.

Likud and other right-wing figures pointed to the unusually high turnout in Arab communities, reports of organized transportation to polling stations and concerns over foreign-funded voter mobilization campaigns as grounds for requesting an investigation. They argue that a formal review is necessary to maintain public confidence in the electoral process, regardless of whether wrongdoing is ultimately found. 

Authorities refute allegations 

Israel's elections are administered by the Central Election Committee, a body comprising representatives of parliamentary parties and chaired by a Supreme Court justice. Large-scale election fraud has historically been rare, although disputes over campaign conduct and voting procedures regularly arise. 

Israeli police said there is no evidence to support Likud's claims, neither "investigative” nor "informative.” 

"Election day went with a minority of irregular incidents in the area of election integrity, also compared to other elections," it said in a statement. 

A high-ranking Central Election Committee official, too, denied the allegations. 

"We don't have any basis for claims of 'stolen elections,'" Dean Livne, the Committee's acting director general, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11, adding that the committee received "claims rather than evidence" from Likud and other parties. 

Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main competitor and the head of the Yashar party, blamed the Israeli leader for leading an "improper influence operation" to cast doubt on the elections and create what he called "a fictive delegitimization" for the next parliament. 

However, Eisenkot, also called for Likud's allegation of electoral fraud to be investigated. 

The religious Muslim Ra'am party denied any involvement and said it would cooperate with any investigation. 

Qatar released a statement denying any involvement in the Israeli elections, calling them "false propaganda aimed at dragging Qatar's name into Israel's political conflicts." 

The controversy comes against the backdrop of growing polarization in Israeli politics and increasing public distrust between rival political camps.

Likud's motivation could be to decrease the Arab influence on Israeli politics, according to Amira Halperin, a senior fellow at the Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research. "The Arab votes were very, very important in this election," she said.  

Such allegations could also hurt the public's trust in the election process Halperin argued: "We need to be cautious about predicting a failure of the democratic system."

Shin Bet head in focus 

Israeli media reports have suggested that some of the concerns cited by Likud were based on intelligence assessments examined by the Shin Bet, though the agency has not publicly confirmed the details of any such findings. 

Public broadcaster Kan reported the suspicions' extent as "relatively small," citing sources familiar with the Shin Bet investigation. Israeli daily Ha'aretz, too, quoted sources familiar with the allegations as saying the reports are "being blown out of proportion.” 

David Zini, the head of the agency, said on election day that the elections in Israel are "safe, sound and supervised," adding that the Elections Committee and Israeli police are "successfully" preventing anyone from hurting it.  

Zini's appointment earlier this year was criticized by opposition figures, who questioned both his qualifications for the role and Netanyahu's motives in selecting him. Supporters of the appointment rejected those criticisms, arguing that Zini's military experience and security background made him suitable for the position. 

Separately, the Shin Bet, has been involved in investigating several of Netanyahu's closest aides on allegations of undisclosed ties to Qatar. Those investigations are unrelated to the current election allegations. 

Pre-planned tactics? 

Israeli outlet N12 has reported that in the weekend before the elections that Likud officials were discussing potential election-integrity complaints ahead of voting, although no evidence of actual irregularities had been presented at that stage, with a focus on Arab and Palestinian communities . 

"They sat and brainstormed to find creative ideas of how to complain about this issue," said Daphna Liel, the reporter who broke the story.

Historic turnout 

Arab and Palestinian participation in this week's election was unprecedented, with turnout jumping from around 50% in 2022 to about 80% in 2026, according to reports in Israel. 

Arab voter participation has fluctuated significantly in recent decades. Turnout has often been influenced by debates within Arab society over whether participation in national elections can effectively advance the interests of Arab citizens, who comprise roughly 20% of Israel's population. The exceptionally high turnout in this election was widely seen as a sign of renewed political mobilization. 

This resulted in huge success forthe Joint List and Ra'am, with 11 and eight parliament seats, respectively, in comparison to six and four in the 2022 election. Both parties have already voiced their willingness to cooperate with Israel's Zionist opposition to replace Netanyahu.  

Most parties in Israel's Zionist opposition promised not to join a coalition with Arab parties ahead of the elections, with the exception of left-wing Zionist party "The Democrats” (HaDemocratim).

On election day, there were also allegations over "systematic delays" in voting in Arab and Palestinian polling stations, according to Adalah, an Israeli-Palestinian NGO for the legal rights of the Arab minority in Israel. 

No clear winner emerges in Israel's election