Demand for an investigation into the election in Israel! The alliance that shook Netanyahu: 'Detain him'

Following the announcement of the unofficial election results in Israel, the bloc led by Netanyahu won 53 seats, while the opposition bloc led by Eisenkot gained 48 seats. The Joint Arab List and the Raam party, representing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, reached 19 seats in total.

Central Election Committee Chairman Noam Solberg requested an investigation to Internal Security Agency Shin Bet Chairman David Zini regarding the election, which brought about political uncertainty in Israel.

According to the news of the Israeli-based Maariv newspaper, Solberg sent a letter to Zini requesting a comprehensive examination of allegations that there may have been irregular intervention in the elections with the financing of foreign elements operating against Israel's interests.

Among the allegations for which Solberg requested an investigation order was that large amounts of money were transferred to some segments of the Arab society in order to increase the participation of Arab voters and influence their voting preferences.

Solberg emphasized that he could not determine the accuracy of the suspicions, but that the possible intervention of foreign elements could threaten the reliability of the elections and the democratic process. Therefore, he asked Shin Bet to use the agency's powers to investigate evidence that would confirm or refute the allegations.

Since the legal deadlines for objecting to the election results are limited, Solberg requested that the investigation findings, if any, be delivered to him within a week.

QATAR'S NAME IS ON THE AGENDA

The news stated that Qatar was among the countries that were alleged to have provided financing from foreign sources in order to influence the elections.

It was reported that the former prime minister of Qatar made a post after the elections in which he celebrated the success of the Arab lists in Israel, especially by highlighting the Palestinian-origin Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi, but later deleted this post. It was also reported in the news that Tibi went to Qatar the day before the elections, ostensibly to give an interview to Al Jazeera.

It was emphasized in the news that there is no evidence or information so far that tens of thousands of voters were provided with money or any other benefit in exchange for voting in the elections.

Shin Bet sources confirmed that an investigation was launched following Solberg's request. “The investigation was launched based on intelligence we have recently collected,” a Shin Bet source said. In the statement made by Shin Bet, it was said: "This is a sensitive incident, we are not commenting."

'ELECTIONS WERE STOLEN' CLAIM FROM NETANYAHU

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his claim that "the Raam Party stole the elections with the Joint List", even though the Israeli police announced that they found it unfounded.

In his statement on behalf of the Likud Party, which he leads from the US-based social media account

Netanyahu called on the Israeli police and the domestic intelligence agency Shin-Bet to take action against allegations that "Arab parties receive funding from abroad."

The Likud Party claimed that "the elections were stolen by Arab parties" due to the high participation rate of Israeli Palestinians in the elections.

Likud claimed that there were irregularities in the elections and that hundreds of statements and evidence were submitted to the police, the Israeli Internal Security Organization (Shin Bet) and the Central Election Committee regarding the allegation that votes were stolen in many ballot boxes in areas where Palestinians live heavily.

Israeli police announced in a written statement yesterday that there was no intelligence data supporting the Likud Party's claim that "Arab parties stole the elections".

CALL FOR DETENTION FROM BEN-GVİR AND SMOTRİCH

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that the leaders of parties representing Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin be detained.

In his post on his X account, Ben-Gvir called for an order to be taken into custody of the leaders of the Arab parties starting from the morning hours.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also made the same statement. Smotrich said in his social media post, "Leaders of Arab parties must be questioned by Shin Bet today."

WARNING FROM EİSENKOT

Eisenkot, on the other hand, opposed the use of foreign intervention allegations for political purposes. Eisenkot stated that the allegations should not be used to delay the inauguration of the new Knesset.

Eisenkot emphasized that election security should be protected and all complaints should be examined meticulously and said:

“Israel must do everything in its power to protect the integrity of the elections against any attempt at interference, distortion or manipulation and to rigorously investigate every complaint.”