Israel’s attorney general has asked intelligence services to provide updates on an investigation into alleged election fraud involving Arab parties, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party accused her of covering up alleged electoral manipulation ahead of Wednesday’s official results.
President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to receive the official results of the Oct 27 election at noon (1000 GMT). The election produced no clear parliamentary majority, after which he will begin consultations with political parties.
On Tuesday evening, the electoral commission rejected Likud’s demand to delay the announcement of the results until investigations launched by the Shin Bet intelligence service are completed.
Likud and Netanyahu have in recent days flooded social media with allegations against Arab parties, which secured a record 19 seats in parliament.
In a statement, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said the Shin Bet or any other authority should present evidence if it had grounds to justify opening an investigation.
The statement followed media reports that Shin Bet chief David Zini, a close associate of Netanyahu, had requested permission to question Arab party leaders as part of an investigation into suspected electoral fraud.
Attorney general and Likud trade accusations
Baharav-Miara said anyone who needed to be questioned would be called in, but no one would be investigated without sufficient evidence.
She also accused the Shin Bet of failing to provide material from its investigation to the special investigative team operating under her supervision.
Likud, in turn, accused her of obstructing the investigation and covering up what it described as a serious case of manipulation of the electoral process by foreign actors.
Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot accused Netanyahu and Likud of launching what he described as a ‘pogrom against democracy and the rule of law’.
He warned that their actions could drag Israel into a dangerous constitutional crisis.
Arab parties have again categorically rejected the allegations.
Opposition struggles to secure parliamentary majority
The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot has pledged to form a government as quickly as possible, although divisions remain over whether to cooperate with Arab lawmakers.
The leaders of five opposition parties met at a hotel in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, on Tuesday to discuss their strategy.
In a joint statement, they said their objective was to establish a government as quickly as possible and prevent Israel from being forced into another election.
They reaffirmed four conditions set by Eisenkot, including that any party joining the government must recognise Israel as a Jewish state and condemn Hamas as a terrorist organisation. These conditions could effectively exclude some Arab lawmakers from the coalition.
Unattributed Israeli media reports said the opposition leaders placed greater emphasis on securing an alliance with Orthodox Jewish parties, which have traditionally supported Netanyahu, than on partnering with Arab parties.
However, Arab lawmakers could provide Eisenkot with the parliamentary support needed to secure a majority.
Arab-majority parties won 19 seats in the 120-member parliament in last week’s election, amid anger over the hard-right Netanyahu government’s rhetoric towards Arab citizens of Israel.
Eisenkot’s diverse opposition bloc secured 48 seats, while Netanyahu’s camp won 53, including 27 for Likud.
Despite differences over several issues, including the role of Arab lawmakers, all opposition bloc leaders have pledged to support Eisenkot in forming the next government.
Arab parties call for political cooperation
Opinion polls conducted before the election showed that Jewish Israeli opposition supporters were divided over whether Arab parties should be included in the government, while right-wing Israelis were firmly opposed.
Yousef Jabareen, head of the largest Arab-majority party in the next parliament, told AFP that the opposition needed to accept the ‘political reality’ and work together to remove Netanyahu from power.
Arab-Israelis are descendants of Palestinians who remained after Israel was established in 1948 and account for around 20 per cent of the country’s population.
Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party, is the only opposition leader to have openly supported an alliance with Arab parties. He described excluding the Arab minority as racist.
During the election campaign, Netanyahu repeatedly portrayed Arab parties as untrustworthy and raised fears of a Palestinian state.
On Monday, he called for a ‘broad national government’ and insisted that he should lead it, arguing that Likud remained the largest single party despite losing ground.
He ruled out forming a coalition with Arab-majority parties, accusing them of supporting terrorism and denying the existence of the Jewish state.
However, leaders of Arab-Israeli parties have unanimously condemned Hamas’ Oct 7 attack.
