PMO rejects claim it manufactured election day arrests of Ra’am members; Eisenkot pledges inquiry

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office rejects a Channel 12 report alleging it may have orchestrated the arrest of three southern Bedouin men from the Ra’am party on election day with pre-planned, manufactured claims of a vote-buying scheme.

“Criminal information reached [PMO] Chief of Staff Ido Norden,” Netanyahu’s office says in a statement. “He fulfilled his duty, as expected of every law-abiding citizen, and put that individual in touch with the police.”

Any further involvement by Norden, says the PMO, “is false and constitutes grounds for a defamation suit. He never spoke with police intelligence officials or any other officials involved in the investigation.”

The network reported earlier that Norden referred police officers to a purported intelligence source, but that this man had until recently worked at the PMO himself. It said the information supplied by Norden and the second man led to the arrests of the three Bedouin men, enabling Netanyahu to make baseless claims of vast vote irregularities on the day of the vote.

All three men have since been released, and the investigation appears to have found nothing of significance.

Meanwhile, Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot says he will work to create a commission of inquiry to look into “the interference of the Prime Minister’s Office on election day, and the behavior of the security agencies around it.”

“Netanyahu and his associates’ conduct poses a tangible, direct and immediate threat to Israeli democracy,” Eisenkot says in a statement. “Under no circumstances must Netanyahu be allowed to remain at the helm of government for even one minute longer. Under no circumstances must Israel be dragged into another round of elections with him as prime minister. It is clear that as long as he remains in office, there will be no more fair elections. This is the main consideration guiding me in the coalition negotiations I am now conducting.”