Israeli police have found no evidence supporting allegations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party that Arab political parties rigged Tuesday’s parliamentary election, according to local media, as preliminary results left the country’s major political blocs short of a governing majority.
Police received 48 complaints involving suspected fraud and voter impersonation, approximately 40% fewer than during the previous election. Investigators found no evidence indicating widespread electoral fraud, i24NEWS reported on Thursday. “There’s nothing dramatic,” Major General Boaz Blatt, head of the police’s Investigations and Intelligence Division, said, according to Kan News.
The findings came after Likud accused Arab parties of committing serious electoral offences and demanded an investigation by police and the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency. The party alleged that irregularities had affected voting in Arab communities and said it had collected hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence.
Likud accused Arab parties of having “stolen” the election through “serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries and the use of illegal software to mobilize voters”. It called for authorities to investigate the allegations.
The Central Elections Committee reported receiving approximately 10,000 reports of suspected electoral irregularities. However, around 80% were dismissed as unrelated to election integrity, including complaints that were false or incorrectly classified. The reports covered alleged photography inside polling stations, ballot tampering and disruptions to voting.
The police findings did not support Likud’s claims of widespread fraud, according to the media reports. The allegations nevertheless became a significant political dispute as the election produced no clear parliamentary majority and Arab representatives emerged with increased influence over potential coalition negotiations.
The Arab Joint List alliance and the Islamist Ra’am party were projected to secure a combined 19 seats, nearly doubling their previous representation. Arab citizens account for around 21% of Israel’s population, and their elected representatives could play a decisive role in determining the next government.
Preliminary tallies projected Netanyahu’s bloc would win approximately 52–53 seats, while the rival bloc led by former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot was expected to secure 48. Neither grouping reached the 61 seats required for a majority in the 120-member Knesset.
Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister while political parties seek to establish a governing coalition. The election was Israel’s first parliamentary vote since the outbreak of the war with Hamas in Gaza in 2023.
Arab political leaders rejected Likud’s allegations, accusing the party of attempting to undermine the legitimacy of Arab voters and their electoral representation.
Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen dismissed the fraud claims as “the words of losers”. Ra’am also denied wrongdoing, accusing authorities of politically motivated arrests and efforts to suppress Arab electoral participation.
The dispute follows the growing role of Arab parties in Israeli coalition politics. In 2021, Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, became the first independent Arab party to formally join an Israeli governing coalition. It supported a broad alliance led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, which ended Netanyahu’s 12 consecutive years as prime minister.
That coalition collapsed in 2022, paving the way for Netanyahu’s return to power following another election that year.
The latest election has again left Israel without a clear governing majority, with Arab parties projected to hold 19 seats and potentially influence negotiations over the formation of the next government.
