New Hope MK Haskel says order to film Rabello vote came from her own party, not Likud — report

Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel speaks to the media as she announces her resignation at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 14, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel speaks to the media as she announces her resignation at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 14, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

New Hope MK Sharren Haskel claimed in her police testimony today that it was her own faction, rather than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, that instructed New Hope MKs to record themselves casting ballots for Michael Rabello in the vote for state comptroller in June, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

A source familiar with the investigation is cited by Kan as saying that Haskel told investigators that the instructions came down from New Hope MK Michel Buskila, the party whip.

Police are expected to collect testimony from other New Hope MKs who would have received the same instructions, Kan says. It notes that, in an interview with the broadcaster last week, New Hope MK and Minister Ze’ev Elkin denied receiving such instructions.

Haskel testified after saying in a Supreme Court affidavit last month that she had received instructions to record herself voting for Rabello in the second round of voting.

Rabello, who is Netanyahu’s attorney, had trailed in the inconclusive first round, but won in the second after at least six coalition lawmakers recorded themselves casting their ballots. The Supreme Court has since annulled the vote, finding it violated the required secrecy.

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