Information supplied to police by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Ido Norden, prompted an investigation that resulted in the arrest of three Arab Ra’am party activists, N12 News reported Thursday. The activists were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to bribe citizens to vote for the party.
The three suspects are Bedouin residents of Segev Shalom and Ar’ara BaNegev. They are suspected of attempting to offer bribes on the eve of Election Day. According to N12, Norden contacted senior police officials with details that set the inquiry in motion. The case is now under the jurisdiction of Lahav 433.
Following the arrests, Netanyahu urged a formal investigation. He said the suspects had cash-filled envelopes and ballots for Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas. In his response, Netanyahu also appealed to right-wing voters and Likud supporters to cast their ballots for Likud, presenting the incident as an attempt to compromise the integrity of the election.
Ra’am rejected efforts by elements within the police to associate the party with electoral misconduct. It said the activists had been detained in their homes several hours before voting began, rather than near voters or polling stations. The party described the arrests as baseless and alleged they were intended to damage Ra’am and discourage turnout among Arab citizens. It linked those allegations to what it described as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s political exploitation of the police.
Senior officials told N12 that an indictment was unlikely to follow from the case. According to those officials, the suspects had provided explanations for where the money came from.
In a separate matter earlier Thursday, Abbas denied involvement in an alleged election interference scheme linked to Qatar. He expressed support for an investigation into suspected foreign funding intended to improperly influence the election, welcoming the decision by Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg to have the suspicions examined.
Abbas also accused Netanyahu of employing Qatari agents in his office and conducting a campaign of incitement and delegitimization against Arab citizens. Responding to the allegations against him, Abbas said: “There will be nothing, because there is nothing.”
The Shin Bet launched an investigation following Sohlberg’s directive into suspicions that foreign entities, potentially including Qatar and Turkey, had channeled money into Israel to influence voting in Arab communities. The agency said the inquiry concerned serious suspicions of improper electoral influence through foreign funding from entities acting against Israeli interests.
