Israeli Justice Rules Bribery Allegations Will Not Void Recent Elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his parliamentary majority in elections held on October 27, but his Likud party continues to challenge the validity of the results. On Sunday, Justice Noam Sohlberg, the head of the elections committee, declared that the integrity of the vote would not be undermined by ongoing investigations into bribery and foreign interference.

Sohlberg made the declaration in a video released Sunday alongside the Shin Bet chief and the attorney general. He stated that even if suspicions of foreign interference are substantiated, they would not alter the overall election results. This ruling directly counters the strategy employed by Netanyahu, who has sought to cast doubt on the vote to block a potential governing alliance between his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, and Arab-led parties.

Likud has alleged that Arab-led parties stole the election without providing specific evidence. The party pointed to the pre-election arrest of three political activists who were caught with envelopes of cash intended to bribe voters. Police arrested four additional suspects two days later. Authorities linked these individuals to the Islamist party Ra'am, which has denied involvement in the bribery scheme.

On Sunday, a judge questioned and partially rejected police requests for further restrictions on the three original suspects. One suspect was released with unspecified conditions, another was ordered to remain on house arrest for eight days, and the detention of the third was extended for two days. Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra'am, which won eight seats in the Knesset, called the arrests undemocratic and an attempt to influence the outcome.

Netanyahu's coalition now holds 53 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, a drop from 68 in the previous parliament. Eisenkot's bloc secured 48 seats, while Arab-led parties won 19. Together, the opposition blocs possess enough seats to form a government, though negotiations remain uncertain. President Isaac Herzog will begin meeting with elected parties this week to determine who has the best chance of forming a coalition.

If Herzog fails to identify a viable candidate, the country faces new elections early next year. Netanyahu has suggested that Eisenkot joining with Arab parties would constitute treason. Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of running an orchestrated campaign to delegitimize the results, specifically by insinuating that Qatar supported opposition parties. The Shin Bet security service opened an investigation into this foreign interference claim at the request of the election commission.

Qatar has denied funding activities meant to influence the election. The allegations have stirred political tension, as many Israelis view the Gulf state as a patron of Hamas. Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List of Arab parties that won 11 seats, criticized Netanyahu for using racist incitement to delegitimize the Arab public, who comprise 20% of the population. Jabareen noted that more than half of Likud's election day messaging targeted Arab voters.