Bismuth warns against ‘domestic interference’ in elections following High Court ruling on state comptroller vote

By Ariela Karmel

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1 July 2026, 4:14 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

MK Boaz Bismuth leads a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 30, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Likud MK Boaz Bismuth summons Shin Bet chief David Zini for what he describes as a discussion on both foreign and domestic “attempts to interfere in Israel’s electoral system” in the upcoming October elections.

In a letter to Zini, Bismuth writes that while Israel must guard against foreign attempts to influence elections, “it is also necessary to examine the danger of interference from within.”

He specifically refers to the High Court of Justice’s interim order today freezing Michael Rabello’s appointment as state comptroller after he was elected in a controversial June 3 Knesset vote in which several Likud MKs photographed or videoed themselves voting for Rabello, reportedly on the instructions of senior Likud officials.

The court had previously urged the Knesset to hold a new vote, but Speaker Amir Ohana refused.

“We are witnessing another serious incident today, as an interim injunction has been issued freezing the appointment of the state comptroller after he was lawfully elected by the Knesset,” Bismuth writes. “This development raises grave concern over a slippery slope: Today it concerns the election of the state comptroller, and tomorrow it could concern Israel’s general elections.”

Bismuth’s letter echoes a broader campaign by coalition lawmakers, who have repeatedly portrayed the High Court of Justice — one of the few institutional checks on government power in Israel — as an anti-democratic body for halting government policies.

Critics, including opposition lawmakers and constitutional scholars, argue the opposite, warning that the coalition’s handling of the state comptroller election offers a troubling preview of how it will conduct elections.

They also contend that the coalition’s long-running efforts to delegitimize the judiciary is laying the groundwork to reject a future election defeat by portraying judicial enforcement of election law as political interference.