Shin Bet asked Joint List activists for info on rival Ra’am in vote fraud probe — report

The Shin Bet called in activists from the majority-Arab Joint List party in recent days and pressed them to provide information about the rival Islamist Ra’am party, Channel 12 reported Saturday, citing several activists who alleged that they were questioned.

The report comes after Central Elections Committee Chairman Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg said on Thursday that information provided so far regarding suspicions of foreign interference in last month’s election has not yet yielded evidence of wrongdoing, and may never do so.

According to the Joint List activists cited by Channel 12, the activists who were summoned for questioning were surprised to find that they were not being interrogated about any activities within the Joint List, but that investigators were focusing their questioning on Ra’am, which broke away from the three factions that make up the Joint List — Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad — in 2021.

One Joint List activist described the police interrogation as an attempt to recruit him as an informant against the rival party.

One activist told Channel 12 that a Shin Bet investigator highlighted their religious differences while encouraging him to cooperate, saying: “You’re a Christian. They’re Islamists. You need to cooperate with us against them. Give me something.”

The activist reportedly responded that he had no connection to Ra’am and did not understand why he was being questioned.

The Joint List, in response, accused the Shin Bet of becoming “a political tool of the government,” but stressed that “such intimidation tactics will neither deter nor silence us.”

The party, addressing the rift between itself and Ra’am that the Shin Bet allegedly looked to exploit, warned that “while there are political and ideological differences between us and Ra’am, these are dwarfed by the chasm between us and the Kahanist and fascist forces that threaten all of our futures.”

In its own response to the report, the Shin Bet told Channel 12 that it is acting “in accordance with its legal authority” as part of an investigation into suspected “subversion and foreign influence” relating to the election.

“Naturally, it is not possible at this stage to comment on the activities themselves,” the agency added.

The Shin Bet has continued to investigate alleged voter fraud and election interference following the October 27 election, even as election officials have said the vote was conducted properly.

The probe has primarily focused on the Arab-led Joint List and Ra’am, although police reportedly told the State Attorney’s Office that “there is no suspicion of security offenses” by Arab party heads or any need to interrogate them over the allegations.

Three Ra’am activists were arrested on election day on suspicion of being part of an alleged vote-buying scheme, but were released without restrictive conditions,

The three were accused of planning to pay people to vote for Ra’am. Police found envelopes of cash and Ra’am ballots during searches of some of the suspects’ homes. But the men denied the bribery allegations and said the money was intended for charitable purposes.

Separately, the Shin Bet probe has focused on allegations of outside financial interference in the election.

According to the initial claims, Qatar was suspected of having funneled a large sum of money to Israel to encourage Arab citizens to vote. But Haaretz reported later that investigators were 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.

Netanyahu has seized on the allegations to suggest Arab parties “stole” the October 27 Knesset election, which saw him lose his parliamentary majority amid massive Arab voter turnout.

Citing the purportedly stolen election, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party voted against certifying the results and has already submitted draft legislation to dissolve the Knesset that was sworn in last week.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.