Shin Bet chief said to seek questioning of 4 Arab politicians, without providing evidence

Shin Bet chief David Zini is seeking to question four Arab politicians in a case of alleged foreign election interference, but hasn’t provided prosecutors with evidence regarding three of them, according to a report on Tuesday, sparking a rare public rebuke of the security chief from the attorney general, who accused him of subverting democratic norms.

The three are Ra’am party head Mansour Abbas, Ta’al faction leader Ahmad Tibi and Balad faction chief Sami Abu Shehadeh — the latter of whom was disqualified from running in last week’s election — according to the i24News outlet.

The fourth is a senior Joint List MK, whose name is barred from publication and against whom there reportedly is “wall-to-wall” agreement of compelling evidence.

The report said that although Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has asked to receive the evidence ahead of a decision on whether to approve the interrogations, the Shin Bet hasn’t yet provided it, except against the unnamed lawmaker.

The Shin Bet has also not provided police with the material, even though the two bodies decided two days ago to form a joint team, according to the report.

In the wake of the report, the Joint List accused Zini of acting as a “political arm” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu is clinging to power and trying to delegitimize the Arab public, which turned out in droves to vote against his government,” the party said. “Zini, who was appointed by Netanyahu, is acting as a political arm in his service.”

“We will not allow Netanyahu and Zini to turn the votes of hundreds of thousands of Arab citizens into a security threat and their elected representatives into suspects,” the party added, describing the reported investigations as part of a broader campaign to delegitimize Arab voters and their political representatives.

Ra’am’s Abbas reacted to the report by saying he and all Ra’am members are willing to answer any summons by law enforcement bodies, while urging authorities to “honor the voters’ decision” and denouncing the “attempt to tarnish the Arab public.”

Netanyahu’s Likud party, meanwhile, issued a statement accusing Baharav-Miara of preventing the interrogations and “working to cover up and thwart the investigation into the contamination of the elections.”

“This is what selective enforcement looks like. Justice Solberg and the Central Elections Committee must make the truth clear and give answers to the public,” said Likud, which has been trying to delay the publication of the final election results over the probes.

Baharav-Miara responded with a scathing statement, effectively accusing Zini — a controversial Netanyahu appointee — of trying to undermine the rule of law.

“In the highly unusual manner, and due to these false reports, the attorney general wants to make it clear that in a country governed by the rule of law, it is not possible to interrogate citizens or elected officials without evidence that justifies it,” a statement by Baharav-Miara’s office said.

“If the Shin Bet or any other party has evidence that justifies an investigation, it is welcome to present it,” the statement read. “Anyone who needs to be interrogated will be interrogated, but people without an evidentiary basis will not be interrogated.”

Appearing to confirm that part of the report, the attorney general said in her statement that for two days, the Shin Bet has not handed over evidence to the joint investigative team, hindering the probe, and added that the authorities were working to reach a conclusion in the case.

Officials had confirmed to the public that the election results are valid despite an alleged vote-buying scheme for Ra’am and the separate probe into foreign election interference, reportedly by Qatar, over which Zini is said to be seeking to interrogate the Arab politicians. Netanyahu has seized on those allegations to cast doubt on the election results, which saw his coalition lose its majority.

But officials have stressed that the probes are limited in scope. On Sunday, the chair of the Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, reiterated in a video message that the election was “conducted properly,” in a move to quell claims of widespread voter fraud. Sohlberg appeared in the video alongside Zini, CEC acting director general Dean Livne, and Baharav-Miara, with the four presenting a united front against the claims.

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot also appeared to issue a warning to Zini late Tuesday evening not to politicize the Shin Bet.

“Woe to anyone who abuses their authority for political considerations,” he wrote in a post on X, insisting that the authorities must serve the country, and not “the king,” referring to Netanyahu.

“In their desperation, Likud and Netanyahu are trying to carry out a pogrom on democracy and the rule of law,” Eisenkot continued.

“They are trying to drag all of us to a dangerous constitutional crisis. Unfortunately, not for the first time. This is exactly the reason they are unworthy and unfit to continue holding power. This is the reason the majority of Israeli citizens voted against the continuation of their tenure,” he said.

The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan also accused Zini of turning the Shin Bet into “a political tool serving Netanyahu’s campaign to undermine the election results,” calling the reports a “grave warning sign” and urging opposition leaders to move quickly to form a government.

Golan said the next government must review Netanyahu’s appointments, including Zini’s, to ensure that security agencies serve the state rather than political interests.