Israeli election chief says foreign interference suspicions may never produce evidence of wrongdoing

The chairman of Israel's Central Elections Committee, Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg, said on Thursday that information gathered so far regarding suspicions of foreign interference in the recent election has not yielded evidence of wrongdoing, and that such evidence may never be found.

In a written update to committee members, Sohlberg said the investigation is still ongoing but described the material presented to date as confidential information that has not ripened into actual evidence. He also said cooperation between the police, the Shin Bet security agency and the Attorney General's Office was good, adding that he found no instances in which the Attorney General's Office refused investigative requests submitted by the Shin Bet.

His assessment cuts against claims by Shin Bet chief David Zini, who has previously complained that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara hampered the investigation. Baharav-Miara, for her part, has accused Zini of seeking to question senior Arab politicians without presenting evidence to justify such a step. Unnamed Shin Bet and law enforcement officials have been widely quoted in Hebrew media accusing Zini of baselessly manufacturing allegations of foreign interference.

Election officials have already said the vote was conducted properly, and law enforcement has described the probes into election misconduct as limited in scope. Police have reportedly told the State Attorney's Office that there is no suspicion of security offenses by Arab party heads and no need to interrogate them over the allegations.

Separately on Thursday, Ibrahim al-Garibi, one of three Ra'am activists arrested on election day over suspicions of involvement in an alleged vote-buying scheme, told Channel 13 news his arrest was "political persecution, nothing else." He said officers who arrived at his home at 5 a.m. had no search warrant, damaged the house and found nothing. He said he was questioned three times, the last time not about the election, before being released without condition by the Beersheba Magistrate's Court a week later. Police found envelopes of cash and Ra'am ballots during searches of some of the suspects' homes, but the men denied bribery and said the money was intended for charity.

Zini has taken the exceptional step of authorizing various technological means to gather evidence and approving an operational unit to collect evidence on the allegations, Haaretz reported on Wednesday. According to the initial claims, Qatar was suspected of funneling a large sum of money to Israel to encourage Arab citizens to vote, but Haaretz later reported that investigators were examining 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.

Sohlberg also addressed leaks to the media of documents related to the investigation, saying they are causing repeated harm, particularly to its security-related aspects. He called such leaks "a malignant phenomenon" and stressed that his complaint was not about manners or etiquette.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has seized on the allegations to suggest Arab parties "stole" the October 27 Knesset election, in which he lost 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 submitted draft legislation to dissolve the Knesset that was sworn in this week.

Baharav-Miara said on Wednesday that she has not seen anything in the investigation that would even remotely influence the outcome of last month's vote.