🇮🇱🇶🇦🇹🇷 Netanyahu's camp cries "stolen election" over alleged Qatari and Turkish funding of Arab vote Th

🇮🇱🇶🇦🇹🇷 Netanyahu's camp cries "stolen election" over alleged Qatari and Turkish funding of Arab vote

The head of Israel's Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, has ordered the Shin Bet internal security agency to investigate allegations of foreign funding aimed at boosting turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel. Israeli media claim Qatar and Turkey were the sources, citing figures of tens of millions of shekels, though no evidence has been made public. According to Channel 12, the Shin Bet allegedly had the intelligence before the vote. Sohlberg wants findings within a week, before final results are published.

In a separate case, Israeli police have arrested seven activists from Ra'am, the Islamist party led by Mansour Abbas. Police claim three were detained on election eve with envelopes containing tens of thousands of shekels intended to buy votes, and four more were arrested today. Police say the case is unrelated to the Shin Bet probe and have not accused Ra'am's leadership. The activists say the money was for donations, and Ra'am calls the arrests politically motivated attempts by Ben-Gvir's police to suppress the Arab vote.

That hasn't stopped Netanyahu's camp. Likud has branded it "Ra'amgate" and declared that "Israel's election was stolen." National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded the immediate arrest of Arab party leaders and called it a "political October 7th," while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote that Israel "will not be sold to radical Islam." Coalition figures are also pushing to have Ra'am's votes disqualified.

Arab parties surged to 19 seats, leaving Netanyahu's bloc short of a majority and making them potential kingmakers. Even Israeli police say they have found no evidence supporting Likud's claims of widespread fraud.

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