Israel Election: Secret Funding Allegations Against Qatar and Turkey, Shin Bet Opens Investigation

No bloc won a majority to form a government in Israel's just-concluded election. Amid that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has accused the Arab parties of 'stealing' the election with foreign funding, with the names of Qatar and Turkey surfacing. Both countries have rejected the allegations.

Israel's parliament, the Knesset, has 120 seats in total. A party or bloc needs to win at least 61 seats to form a government. According to the Election Commission results, the bloc led by Netanyahu won 53 seats and the centrist bloc led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party won 48 seats. As a result, neither bloc reached the required number.

The main contest in this election was between the hardline right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu's Likud party and the bloc led by Eisenkot. Israeli Arab parties also took part, but during the election they did not join either of the two blocs. The results showed a rise of the two Arab Muslim parties, the Joint List and the Ra'am party.

On Thursday, while vote counting was under way, Likud and media outlets aligned with it alleged that the two Israeli Arab parties, the Joint List and the United Arab List (Ra'am), had 'stolen' the election and that there was likely foreign assistance in the process. Likud claimed the alleged interference aimed to establish foreign control over the Knesset, push Israel towards Islamisation and remove the right-wing government from power.

Likud claimed that in some areas cash had been placed inside envelopes along with Ra'am ballot papers. It also alleged threats and violence against polling committee members, multiple voters entering polling stations together, the same person voting more than once, and a mismatch between the number of ballot envelopes and the number of registered voters.

Likud also alleged that banned software was used to organise voters. It demanded a thorough investigation and an immediate answer from the Election Commission. On social media platform X, Likud wrote that the 'Ra'am-gate' scandal was like a political earthquake and that Israel's election had been stolen. However, Likud could not present any evidence in support of these allegations.

Although Likud did not name any specific country, some Israeli media reports said members of Netanyahu's party were blaming Qatar and Turkey for the interference. It was also alleged that Ra'am received money from Qatar to buy votes. According to a Channel 13 report, investigators are examining whether money was transferred through routes previously used to finance terrorist activities, such as money-exchange firms or a local organisation. According to the allegations, the money was used to raise voter turnout in Arab Muslim-majority areas.

Against the backdrop of the vote-rigging allegations, Israel's internal security and intelligence agency Shin Bet has begun investigating suspected foreign interference in the election. The step was taken after Chief Election Commissioner and former judge Noam Solberg called for an investigation in a letter. In the letter, Solberg wrote that serious allegations had reached him of unethical interference in the election through funding by outside parties opposed to Israel's interests, but that he was not yet sure whether the allegations were true.

On the other hand, on Thursday (29 October) the acting director general of Israel's Central Elections Committee, Dean Livne, rejected allegations of widespread rigging. In a letter to committee member and Yesh Atid MP Vladimir Beliak, Livne said the Knesset election was held in compliance with the law, transparency was strictly maintained at polling stations, and to their knowledge there was no basis to the allegations of systematic irregularities concerning the election's transparency.

Netanyahu's main rival Gadi Eisenkot said Likud was trying to prove the election result illegitimate because it had lost. He also said Netanyahu had become accustomed to confronting reality through lies, influencing public opinion and creating chaos, and that he and his associates were carrying out an illegitimate influence operation on the Israeli people.

The Arab parties have also strongly rejected the allegations. A Joint List statement said the allegations of foreign funding, software use and vote buying were baseless. The statement also said there was no need to apologise or explain in response to the false and baseless allegations of right-wing groups refusing to accept the result, and that these racist allegations proved how much they fear the strength of the Arab community. Opposition leader Yair Golan also said Netanyahu had been defeated in the democratic process, the people had rejected him, yet he was refusing to accept the voters' verdict.

Qatar has also rejected the allegation of interference in Israel's election. Its foreign ministry said Qatar should not be made a scapegoat for the political failures of some Israeli politicians. Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said Qatar firmly denies the allegation of interfering in the Israeli election or funding any activity aimed at influencing the result. On X, he wrote that Qatar rejects another disinformation campaign aimed at dragging Qatar into Israel's internal political disputes.

Turkey has also called the claim of interference in the Israeli election completely baseless. The Centre for Countering Disinformation of Turkey's Directorate of Communications said on the NSosyal platform that the allegations were part of a planned and clear disinformation campaign aimed at influencing or misleading public opinion. The centre also called on people not to trust false reports and allegations spread to mislead the public.