Israel's election commission rejects Netanyahu's fraud claims against Arab parties

Israel's election commission has rejected the fraud allegations brought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He had raised the allegations against the country's Arab parties in the parliamentary election held a few days ago.

The election to Israel's parliament, the Knesset, was held on 27 October. Neither Netanyahu's Likud-led bloc nor the 'Change' bloc led by his main rival Gadi Eisenkot won the majority needed to form a government.

Meanwhile, Israel's two Arab parties, the Joint List and Ra'am, made a surprising breakthrough. For the first time in this election, the two parties won 19 of the Knesset's 120 seats. As a result, these Arab parties could play the decisive role in removing Netanyahu from power after a divisive election.

After the Arab parties' result, Netanyahu repeatedly alleged fraud and theft against them. He pointed to the arrest of several people with cash on election day and to claims that lawmakers had taken money from Qatar — although such allegations had in the past been raised against his own aides.

On Wednesday the election commission responded to Netanyahu's allegations. In a statement the commission said: “After receiving the complaints, the commission audited 9,069 polling stations. The committee is confident that this result is an accurate reflection of the voters' will.”

The commission added: “All complaints submitted by the political parties have been reviewed. No evidence has been found that calls into question the transparency or integrity of the election.”

Late on Tuesday night, Israel's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said she would not authorise the questioning of anyone without evidence. Earlier, reports had said the head of the internal security agency Shin Bet — who is close to Netanyahu — had requested to interrogate members of the Arab parties.

Netanyahu's Likud party strongly criticised the Attorney General after the Shin Bet chief's request was turned down. In a statement the party said: “The Attorney General is obstructing the investigation and trying to cover up this grave incident of rigging the electoral process through a foreign power.”

Former military chief Eisenkot — who is trying to unite centrist and centre-right parties to end Netanyahu's long and divisive rule — has also described the Likud party's actions as an 'attack on democracy'.

Eisenkot had earlier warned Netanyahu not to join his close ally, then US President Donald Trump, in starting a new war against Iran, because such a war could give the Israeli prime minister the opportunity to form a 'unity government' or to buy time until a new election, he believes.