Netanyahu staff allegedly colluded with police, Shin Bet to undermine Israeli election - report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's current and former staff members colluded with the Israel Police and the Shin Bet to intentionally submit false reports against members of Ra'am with the intent of subverting the election, a Channel 12 report published on Sunday concluded.

According to the report, Netanyahu's chief of staff, Ido Norden, filed an allegedly false police report on October 26, the eve of the election, accusing against Ra'am party activists in the south.

Apparently, Netanyahu's office realized that this was unlikely to yield results, leading them to claim to have a source, identified as Yossi Shelly, the former director-general of Netanyahu's office, who provided corroborating intelligence to the police against three Ra'am activists.

In short, the initial complaint against Ra'am came from the Prime Minister's chief of staff, the corroborating intelligence came from Netanyahu's former director-general, and bbased solely on these pieces of information, the police launched an operation to raid the activists' homes and arrest them without warrants on the eve of the election.

Around 14 police officers then raided the home of Dr. Siaf Abu Riyash in Rahat. According to footage obtained by Channel 12, Abu Riyash's wife can be heard demanding search and arrest warrants, neither of which the police provided or, as it turned out, had obtained.

Abu Riyash's attorney requested the warrants and original sources during his arraignment in Beersheba Magistrate's Court, which police admitted had originated from an unnamed political source.

The presiding judge ordered Abu Riyash's release despite police claims that they had gathered 'much evidence' to support their case during the allegedly unlawful raid. Further complicating matters, police prevented Abu Riyash from exercising his right to vote on election day through his arrest.

Netanyahu quickly pointed to the raid as evidence that the "Arabs were stealing the election," the raid was based on allegedly falsified evidence provided by his own current and former employees to the police.

Following the initial reports, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered an investigation into the allegations on Sunday.

The Channel 12 report contains additional information alleging that Shin Bet chief David Zini also sought to arrest Arab MKs over suspicions of foreign interference. The proposal was rejected by the prosecutor's office, and the suspicions were later found to be baseless, according to the report.

Zini also claimed that he had evidence dating back to 2018 detailing alleged "election theft" by Arab parties that had been ignored by previous Shin Bet chiefs. According to the report, Zini could not substantiate these claims and had made them in order to support the decision to arrest the activists.

The Prime Minister's Office responded to the report, calling it a "grave attempt to silence the scandal regarding the subversion of the election process." The office defended Norden's police report as the "duty of any law-abiding citizen," saying that the reporting constituted 'defamation' and that legal action was possible. They also claimed that Norden had never spoken to any official involved in the investigation.

Gadi Eisenkot cited the report as evidence that "Netanyahu and his inner circle posed a tangible, direct, and immediate threat to Israeli democracy."

"There is no aspect of life in Israel that has not been corrupted, distorted, or subverted for the sake of Netanyahu’s personal political survival. No restraint has remained intact; no boundary has gone uncrossed."

He warned that, under a Netanyahu premiership, "fair and proper elections can no longer take place in Israel."

The Movement for Quality Government called for an investigation into the Shin Bet's conduct during the election.