Israeli minister Ben-Gvir calls for arrest of Arab party leaders, alleges foreign funding without evidence

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for the arrest of the leaders of Arab political parties. He raised allegations of foreign funding in support of the arrests, but gave no evidence on the matter.

He made the call in a post on X on Thursday. In the post, Ben-Gvir said Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet should, by this morning, order the arrest of the leaders of the Arab parties on suspicion of involvement with funding from Qatar.

Shin Bet has not reacted to the allegation. Earlier, the Israeli police and the Central Election Committee had said no evidence of fraud in the election had been found.

In the just-concluded Israeli national election, the voter turnout among the country's Arab population rose significantly, although historically their turnout had been lower than that of Jewish Israelis.

Palestinian citizens of Israel make up about 20 percent of the country's total population. The report said they voted motivated by a strong desire to oust the right-wing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

No party won a single majority to form a government in the election. According to results after 91 percent of votes were counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition won 53 seats, his rival Gadi Eisenkot's coalition won 48 seats, and the two main Arab parties, the Joint List and Ra'am, jointly won 19 seats.

The rise of the Arab parties has angered far-right Jewish parties, and it was in that context that Ben-Gvir's call for arrests came.