Turkey and Qatar reject accusations of meddling in Israel’s election as Likud claims the vote was “stolen” and Shin Bet investigates

Ankara and Doha on Thursday, October 29, denied having any role in Israel’s elections of October 27. The two answers came as Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, Likud, claims that the Arab lists “stole” the election, and as the Shin Bet internal security service examines suspicions that foreign money was channelled to raise turnout in Arab areas. The allegations are Israeli claims, reported here as such.

On the Turkish side, the Centre for Combating Disinformation (DMM) of the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate replied. In a post it called “completely baseless” what is being written in international media and on social networks about Turkish interference in Israel’s ballot. The claims, it added, are part of a “deliberate and open disinformation campaign” aimed at manipulating public opinion, and it urged the public not to believe them. The graphic in the post shows, struck through with a red X, the Jerusalem Post article on a Shin Bet investigation that includes Turkey.

Qatar was more detailed. Adviser to the prime minister and Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said his country “categorically denies” intervening in the election or funding activity to influence the result. He wrote on X that the accusations are “ridiculous and dangerous” and that Qatar must not become a “scapegoat” for the political failures of Israeli politicians. “They accuse us of buying Netanyahu, of buying the Left and now of buying the Arab vote. If one believed all these claims, Qatar would probably own the whole of Israel,” he said, in remarks recorded by Ynet. Doha stressed that any government that emerges must respect international law, UN resolutions and the Palestinians’ right to a state on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the accusations will not stop its mediation.

How the affair began

It started with a letter from the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, to Shin Bet director David Zini. Sohlberg asked for a thorough investigation of suspicions of foreign interference through funding, with findings within a week, because of the deadlines for election appeals. The letter did not name countries. The Jerusalem Post wrote that the inquiry concerns foreign actors, among them Qatar and Turkey, and that money is suspected of having been transferred to Israel to boost Arab voter turnout.

Likud, which named the affair “Ra’amgate”, claims the election was “stolen”. “This is an earthquake. They stole the election in Israel!” it said in a Thursday statement, speaking of an attack on democracy aimed at a “foreign takeover of the Knesset” and the “Islamisation of Israel”, and urged Zionist parties not to cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List. The prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, accused Qatar, Turkey and other Arab states on X of stealing the election.

The election authorities kept their distance. Acting Director-General of the Committee Dean Livne said the elections were conducted lawfully and that claims of systematic violation of the vote’s integrity are baseless. The voter-bribery case in the Negev, with seven arrests, is being investigated separately by the police and is not linked to the foreign-funding inquiry, while the police rejected Likud’s claims that the election was stolen, saying there is no evidence whatsoever. Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas denied any involvement and pledged to cooperate with the authorities.

The tension carries political weight. After the count of regular ballots, Netanyahu’s bloc has 53 seats, Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition 48 and the Arab lists 19, with no camp reaching the 61 needed for a majority, as the Wednesday count already showed. The Arab lists could thus decide the formation of a government.