On October 28th local time, Netanyahu claimed without providing any evidence that the election had been 'stolen by Arab parties'. He also said that the Likud group had gathered evidence of electoral fraud and submitted it to the electoral, law enforcement, and security authorities.
The preliminary results of the Israeli Knesset election show that neither the right-wing bloc supporting Prime Minister Netanyahu nor the opposition bloc has gained a clear majority. The Likud, led by Netanyahu, remains the largest party in parliament.
In the 120-member assembly, the right-wing camp supporting incumbent Prime Minister Netanyahu's government secured 53 seats. The opposing camp led by former Chief of Staff to the Defense Ministry, Eitan Cohen, secured 48 seats. The Arab party, not belonging to any faction, obtained 19 seats.
On that day, while the voting process was still underway, Netanyahu made the aforementioned remarks. The Likud party also issued a statement claiming that “foreign forces” were interfering in the election by providing funding to Arab political parties. However, the party did not immediately present any evidence to support this claim.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Kariv of the Likud group posted on the X platform on the 28th, requesting that the opening of the new parliament be postponed until all accusations are investigated. "If it is proven that the votes were bought with foreign funds, the election results must be immediately affected, and the results could even be declared invalid."
Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot insisted that Israel's elections were fair and there was no evidence of election fraud. He accused Netanyahu of delaying the announcement of the election results on time, attempting to create excuses to deny the legitimacy of the new parliament.
Israeli police and election officials also denied accusations of electoral fraud involving Arab-led parties, stating that there was no evidence indicating that Arab voters had “stolen votes”.
A senior police official told Israel’s Haaretz that these accusations are baseless propaganda tactics, and that there were fewer violations reported during this election compared to previous elections.
The Arab-American political party Barak Party accused Netanyahu and his allies of using unfounded foreign intervention and allegations of bribery to undermine the acceptance of election results.
The party stated that in any functioning democratic system, those who lose the election should accept the results and acknowledge their defeat. However, the losing side in Israel is fabricating racist smear campaigns, attempting to overturn the election results.
Arabic citizens make up about one-fifth of Israel's total population. Most of them are descendants of Palestinians who remained in Israel after its founding in 1948.
They have Israeli citizenship and the right to vote, but right-wing Jewish parties have always refused to cooperate with Arab parties. Some right-wing parties believe that some Arab parties sympathize with the Palestinian cause.
