Israeli opposition accuses Netanyahu of trying to ‘delegitimise’ election

Israeli opposition leaders Gadi Eisenkot and members of the Arab-led parties have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to "delegitimise" the recent election. Netanyahu's coalition lost its majority in the poll, and Likud alleged Arab parties had "stolen" the election. Home security agency Shin Bet is probing claims that foreign funding, especially from Qatar and Turkey, boosted Arab voter turnout.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry dismissed these allegations as "ridiculous and dangerous," accusing Israeli politicians of spreading disinformation. The two Arab party lists – The Joint List and Ra'am – saw a record 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, resulting from a surge in Arab voter turnout. This puts them in a position to potentially serve as kingmakers.

Netanyahu's Likud claimed voters were "bribed" to vote for Arab parties, but both Arab parties rejected the claim, calling it baseless. Critics of Netanyahu see this as an attempt to invalidate the Arab parties, making it politically impossible for opposition leader Eisenkot to form a coalition with them. The Central Elections Committee (CEC) was approached with allegations that Qatar had provided funding to increase Arab voter turnout, but this was denied by Qatar's Foreign Ministry.

Netanyahu and his Likud party framed the allegations as a "political earthquake" and an "attack on democracy," aimed at removing Israel's right-wing government. However, Shin Bet later clarified that their investigation did not target a specific community, stating there was "no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity."

Eisenkot, briefed on the investigation, said it's too early to determine what happened and accused Netanyahu of orchestrating a campaign to undermine the election results. The opposition bloc's final options for forming a government are a national unity government with Netanyahu and Eisenkot, a right-wing coalition with Netanyahu and defectors from Eisenkot's bloc, or an Eisenkot-led government backed by the Arab parties. No agreement between Eisenkot and the Arab parties has been reached thus far.