Likud stated Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with Police Commissioner Danny Levy has no connection to election integrity. The meeting falls two days before Tuesday's Knesset election. Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party had asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Justice Noam Sohlberg to cancel it. Sohlberg chairs the Central Elections Committee, the body responsible for administering the election.
Likud described the session as a follow-up to an earlier briefing with every head of the security establishment, which was convened over security threats. The party added that Sohlberg is free to send a committee representative to take part.
The Central Elections Committee said that, on the face of it, nothing prevents the meeting from going ahead. It stressed, however, that the commissioner decides what information to present and that the prime minister is barred from interfering in police plans for the election.
Arutz Sheva reported that the meeting concerns police preparations for Election Day. The Jerusalem Post described it as a meeting on election integrity.
In its appeal, Yashar demanded that the authorities "stop Netanyahu's interference in the elections and cancel his meeting with the police commissioner, which is being held without representatives of the Central Elections Committee." The party argued that Netanyahu is himself a candidate, is not responsible for the integrity of the vote and has no authority over the commissioner on that question.
"The unusual meeting raises concern about an attempt to create a false impression that election integrity has been compromised, without any basis, in order to undermine public confidence in the results in advance," the party said. Yashar also accused Netanyahu of possibly seeking to pressure public servants to advance his political interests. Netanyahu's office rejected the claim that the meeting was unusual. It told Ynet News that such discussions take place before every election.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's office also dismissed Yashar's allegations. It called summoning the commissioner for a briefing a routine step that previous ministers had also taken. The office said the minister has a duty to ask questions, prevent loss of life, examine preparations and identify shortcomings. It then turned on the opposition, declaring that its leaders "will not lecture us about preserving democracy" and calling them "the biggest anti-democrats and inciters."
