Israeli authorities investigate election interference claims

JERUSALEM—The head of Israel’s elections committee ordered state counterintelligence officials to investigate claims that historic Arab voter turnout in Tuesday’s election was illegally skewed by foreign funding. The order from Justice Noam Sohlberg, the Central Elections Committee’s chairman, was revealed on Thursday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the claims shocking and accusing foreign actors of attempting to steal the election.

What exactly are the allegations? Official election results showed that Arab-led parties the Joint List and Ra’am garnered an unprecedented 19 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. That’s nearly double the 10 seats they currently hold. In a letter made public on Thursday, Sohlberg wrote that he’d learned of serious suspicions that funding from foreign entities opposed to the Jewish state had improperly influenced the election results, according to a report by The Times of Israel. Local news outlet Channel 12 reported that the allegations involved Qatar, but added that the Central Elections Committee said there was no evidence of systematic damage to the election results.

Why does it matter? Nineteen seats give Arab-led parties substantially more power in parliament. Although Israel is considered a Jewish state, roughly 20% of its population is made up of Arab-Israelis, according to data published in 2024 by the Israel Democracy Institute, and they enjoy full rights to take part in the political process. Netanyahu’s Likud party scored 27 seats in the Knesset, against challenger Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! party (or Straight! party), which won 21 seats. Currently, neither party has the backing from other parties to form a 61-seat majority coalition, and the 19 Arab-led seats are largely seen as a swing vote that could tilt the dynamic in favor of an Eisenkot-led government.

How has Eisenkot responded to the announcement of an investigation? Eisenkot issued a video statement late Thursday night, local time. In it, he said any claim of election interference by Qatar was a serious matter and should be investigated thoroughly. At the same time, he accused Netanyahu and the Likud party of orchestrating and organizing a campaign to delegitimize the election results, because, in his words, they lost. He further pledged not to allow any delay in the swearing in of a new Knesset.

Dig deeper: Read my interview with political analyst Jacob Laviel Dallal breaking down the results of the election.