Arab vote at the center of Israel's election battle as Likud alleges Qatar meddling

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi

As the counting of votes in Israel’s parliamentary election nears completion, with no major shifts giving either Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc or Gadi Eisenkot’s Change bloc a decisive victory, Netanyahu’s Likud party has raised allegations of what it calls “Ra’am-gate.”

Likud alleged that the United Arab List, led by Mansour Abbas, received large sums of money from Qatar and distributed them to Palestinian citizens of Israel, particularly in the Negev, to encourage them to vote for the party. Likud said the alleged payments increased turnout for the list and amounted to Qatari interference in Israel’s election.

Qatar rejected the allegations, describing them as both absurd and dangerous. It urged what it called certain Israeli politicians to address the consequences of their disastrous policies in the region.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Shin Bet security service and police are continuing their investigations, which have so far led to the arrest of seven activists from the United Arab List.

Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s rival, met with the Shin Bet chief and requested a close review of the evidence. He accused Netanyahu of what he described as “engineering public consciousness” and spreading chaos to delay the publication of the election results.

Some Israeli sources have questioned whether such evidence exists at all, suggesting that the case may be an attempt to prevent Arab parties from recommending Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog as the candidate to form the next government.

Opinion polls indicate that endorsements from Arab lawmakers could raise the number of members of parliament supporting Eisenkot to 67, compared with 53 for Netanyahu. 

Meanwhile, Herzog is seeking to prevent the controversy from disrupting the publication of the election results.

Abbas rejected the allegations, denied that his list had any involvement in the matter and welcomed the investigation.

The Joint List, led by Yousef Jabareen, said efforts to cast doubt on the Arab community’s vote were an extension of an organized campaign that began months before the election. It said the campaign aimed to delegitimize Arab political participation and lay the groundwork for challenging the results if they did not serve Netanyahu and his allies.