Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of using smear tactics to cling to power, after he claimed that Arab Israeli parties had used foreign backing to “steal” Tuesday’s election, in which the prime minister’s coalition lost its parliamentary majority. Netanyahu and his allies called on the internal security service, Shin Bet, to investigate alleged vote buying and other irregularities in Palestinian communities in Israel, supposedly funded by foreign money. Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the main opposition bloc, accused the prime minister and his Likud party of trying to derail the election results.
The prime minister’s allegations were quickly disowned by a range of government officials, including police officers and members of the election committee. Netanyahu was also rebuked by the president for “tarnishing an entire community”. On Wednesday night, the prime minister posted a statement by Likud online, which described the claimed violations as “an attack on democracy whose purpose is to lead to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamisation of Israel, and the overthrow of rightwing rule”.
Tuesday’s elections led to Netanyahu’s far-right coalition losing its majority after four years in power. The main Jewish opposition bloc also fell short, however, leaving two Arab Israeli parties, the Joint List and Ra’am, holding the balance of power. Final results released early on Friday local time showed the pro-Netanyahu bloc winning 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset and Eisenkot’s bloc taking 48 seats.
Joint List and Ra’am won the remaining 19 seats, a historic high for the Arab Israeli community, which makes up about a fifth of Israel’s population. The prime minister’s attack appeared aimed at stopping the Jewish and Arab opposition from voting together in the new Knesset to oust the incumbent speaker, Amir Ohana, a Likud politician and former Shin Bet official, and advancing their own legislation. The Likud statement posted by Netanyahu on X said: “It is clear that no Zionist party should cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset speaker through votes bought for cash, and form a government that is dangerous to Israel.” Opposition leaders lambasted the claims of Netanyahu, 77, who has run Israel for 19 of the past 30 years.
Yousef Jabareen, the Joint List leader, accused the prime minister of incitement. Eisenkot said any investigation should be conducted “without fear or favour,” and with “the utmost caution”, but insisted it could not be used as a reason to delay the convening of the newly elected Knesset, due to be sworn in within 14 days of the election. The acting director general of the central elections committee, Dean Livneh, said there appeared to be no basis for the claims.
Police officials quoted across the Israeli press said the allegations were groundless, adding that voting had been relatively trouble-free. The president, Isaac Herzog, called for political leaders to “avoid tarnishing an entire community that sought to exercise its right to vote and take an active part in democracy”. It was not specified in Likud statements, but press reports said Qatar was the foreign power alleged to have funded vote-buying and voter mobilisation.
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