Jerusalem, 29 October, 2026 (TPS-IL) — The chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, on Thursday instructed the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) to investigate suspicions of foreign funding and improper foreign influence on the parliamentary election, requesting any findings within a week.
In an unusual letter to Shin Bet director David Zini, Sohlberg directed the domestic security agency to use its investigative powers to determine whether evidence supports or disproves the allegations, citing legal deadlines for filing election appeals.
“Election purity is the heart of democracy. Take away democracy’s purity, and you take away its vitality,” Sohlberg wrote.
“Serious suspicions have been brought before me of improper influence on the elections through foreign funding from foreign entities operating against Israeli interests,” he added.
Sohlberg acknowledged that he could not independently assess the allegations but said the possibility of foreign involvement warranted an investigation.
“I am unable to testify to the nature of the above suspicions, but it seems to me that given the fact that these are suspicions concerning foreign entities, there is an obligation to investigate them,” he wrote.
The letter did not identify the alleged foreign actors or establish that interference had occurred. Likud subsequently said it suspected Turkey and Qatar were behind the alleged activity, but no evidence establishing either country’s involvement was presented.
The allegations emerged against the backdrop of a sharp rise in Arab voter participation, with the Joint List and Ra’am projected to secure a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset as vote counting reached 90 percent.
Likud challenged the legitimacy of the results, alleging that criminal activity had distorted the vote in Arab communities. The party accused political operatives of buying votes, intimidating election workers, falsifying ballots and using unauthorized software to mobilize voters. It said it had passed supporting material to law enforcement and election officials.
Sagi Keizler, who oversees Likud’s election-integrity efforts in the Arab sector, said the party had lodged 1,183 complaints on Election Day. The reports covered alleged bribery, threats and violence, suspected double voting and the improper collection of voter information.
Keizler accused authorities of failing to follow up on the complaints, saying the party had supplied details of incidents and contact information for potential witnesses. “Neither the police nor the Elections Committee called a single witness,” he said. “Apparently, the conclusion had already been reached in advance.”
Police rejected the suggestion that the complaints pointed to systematic election fraud. Officials said they had no investigative or intelligence evidence backing the broader allegations and reported that incidents involving electoral integrity had dropped by nearly 40 percent compared with the previous election.
A separate investigation began after three men were arrested in southern Israel on suspicion of offering money to voters in exchange for supporting Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas. Police said searches of their homes uncovered cash, ballot slips and other items suspected of being linked to election offenses.
The men denied wrongdoing. Their lawyers offered alternative explanations for the money, including transportation costs and charitable donations, while Ra’am accused authorities of targeting its activists for political reasons.
Although the investigation remains open, police have said investigators have not found significant evidence of wrongdoing and expect the case to be closed. No allegation has been made that Ra’am’s leadership directed or participated in the suspected scheme. The case has not established the broader, coordinated fraud alleged by Likud.
Zini had expressed confidence in the election process before Sohlberg’s Thursday directive. Visiting the Central Elections Committee’s command center on Tuesday, the Shin Bet chief praised the arrangements for safeguarding the vote.
“Elections in Israel are secure, properly conducted and supervised in an inspiring manner,” Zini said. He acknowledged that attempts to undermine the process remained a challenge, but said cooperation between election officials and police had helped ensure its security.
