Ra'am Vote-Buying Probe: Seven Detained, Three Principals

Police arrested four more suspects on Thursday morning in the investigation into alleged vote-buying for Mansour Abbas's Ra'am party. Three of the four run schools in Tel Sheva and Segev Shalom, Bedouin communities in the Negev. The arrests bring the number of people detained in the case to seven since Tuesday's election for the 26th Knesset. Senior Likud officials said the party will ask election authorities to void the results at polling stations where it claims voters were bribed.

Ynet reported that three of Thursday's four detainees were later released to house arrest. Police were expected to ask the court later that day to extend the detention of the new suspects. Investigators believe all seven belong to a single alleged network. None of the seven has been convicted.

If Likud's challenge succeeds, voters at the affected polling stations could be called back to vote. Courts can order a repeat vote at specific polling stations when violations are proven and could have changed the outcome.

The first three suspects are Ibrahim al-Gharibi, 42, of the Al-Azazmeh community; Hussein Masaudin, 63, of Segev Shalom; and Saif Abu Riaash, 38, a doctor from the Al-Sana tribe. A magistrate's court kept al-Gharibi and Masaudin in custody until Sunday and sent Abu Riaash to house arrest. Police appealed the decision on Abu Riaash, and he was ordered held as well.

Searches turned up envelopes stuffed with tens of thousands of shekels. Investigators found cash at al-Gharibi's home. In his car they found envelopes with Arabic writing, green shirts, flags and Ra'am ballot slips. In court, a police representative accused Abu Riaash of hosting gatherings in private homes to rally support for the party. "He holds meetings in people's homes to get them to vote for Ra'am, even though he is a doctor, and that is problematic," the representative said.

Masaudin accused the authorities of persecuting him for political reasons. His lawyer said the envelopes seized at his home carried the name of the Islamic Movement. One suspect argued that the money was charity for needy families on the movement's behalf, not payment for votes.

A Bedouin source from the Negev described the alleged method to Ynet. He said activists call on low-income households, including families whose homes were demolished and residents of unrecognized villages. According to his account, they hand over 200 to 300 shekels in return for support at the ballot box. He said drivers who bring residents to the polls receive fuel vouchers worth 100 shekels. "I don't understand what all the fuss is about," he said.

Attorney Ilan Bombach, Likud's legal adviser and a deputy chairman of the Central Elections Committee, is drafting the petition. It draws on material the party has already given the committee. Likud says that material documents bribery and the use of banned apps that tracked voters' identities at polling stations. The party is not claiming that ballots were forged or that vote counts were altered. "New elections must be held at these polling stations," senior party officials said.

The Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, is running a separate inquiry into whether foreign money was used to sway the vote. That inquiry is examining whether as much as tens of millions of shekels came from Qatar. Arutz Sheva cited suspected sources in both Qatar and Turkey. Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg ordered the Shin Bet to open the investigation and asked for findings within a week. No link has been established between that inquiry and the Negev bribery case.

Joint Arab List chairman Yousef Jabareen defended spending to raise Arab turnout in an interview on Thursday. "If there were funds transferred to increase voter turnout, there is nothing wrong with that," he said. He did not say whether he meant the money now under police investigation.

ח"כ מנסור עבאס ( צילום: אריק מרמור/פלאש90)

On Thursday, Abbas welcomed the probe into foreign funding, insisted that Ra'am had no connection to the affair and pledged full cooperation with law enforcement. On Wednesday, police said they had no evidence to support Likud's claim that Arab parties stole the election.