Report: Shin Bet has no proof of election interference, only Zini has faith in probe

The Shin Bet has failed to supply any evidence to back up suspicions of a foreign interference campaign in the recent election, according to a report citing senior law enforcement officials on Monday.

One official told Haaretz that the case — which has led the Likud and far-right parties to claim without supporting evidence that the election was stolen —  is “certainly not a security matter, and it’s highly doubtful that it is criminal.”

Shin Bet chief David Zini has led the charge on the investigation, and has been reported to assert that as much as NIS 100 million ($35 million) in funds could have been sent by a foreign power — widely reported to be Qatar — to influence the election in favor of Arab parties.

But Haaretz reported that currently, investigators are looking into the possible transfer of no more than a few hundred thousand shekels to Arab parties, not from a foreign country but from the Palestinian Authority. It further reported that with dozens of people questioned, there has been no evidence to back up that allegation either.

“All we have is intelligence information with no real foundation,” another official said. “Everyone understands that the incident is not leading up to a criminal investigation, except for Zini himself.”

The two officials said that if the suspicions remain as they are, nobody is expected to be questioned under caution.

An additional source told Haaretz that the Shin Bet and Israel Police are set to separately recommend additional steps to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in the coming days.

On Monday, Baharav-Miara said that she had not seen anything in the investigations of possible election fraud that would “even remotely” influence the outcome of last month’s vote.

Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, the Central Elections Committee chairman, has said on several occasions that even if proved to be true, the extent of the alleged electoral fraud would not be great enough to influence the election results.

Despite this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies have cast aspersions on the validity of the vote and claimed that the election was “stolen” by Arab Israelis.

Likud is preparing to appeal the results of the recent election — either in part or in full — based on allegations that Arab political parties used electronic means of tracking voters to boost turnout in a manner banned by the High Court of Justice, the party’s lawyer told The Times of Israel on Saturday.

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, who has been tasked with forming a government, has accused those parties of exploiting the situation to illegitimately undermine trust in the election. Senior law enforcement officials have themselves reportedly accused Zini of political motivations over his conduct of the investigation.