Netanyahu Aide Gave Police Tip on Ra'am Bribery Arrests

Ido Norden, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, passed the Israel Police the information that led to Tuesday's arrests of three Ra'am party activists on suspicion of election bribery. N12 News reported the story on Thursday.

The N12 report said Norden telephoned senior police officials and provided the details that opened the investigation and led to the arrests. Lahav 433 now handles the case.

The three suspects are Bedouin residents of Segev Shalom and Ar'ara BaNegev. Police suspect them of trying to pay voters to back Ra'am on the eve of Election Day.

On Election Day, police repeatedly issued statements and briefed the media about the allegations against Ra'am. Those statements did not mention that the complaint came from the Prime Minister's Office.

"Right-wing voters, dear Likud voters, in the face of attempts to compromise the integrity of the elections, you must go out and vote Mahal, vote Likud for the sake of our country!"

Senior officials said that the case is unlikely to lead to an indictment. They said the suspects have explained the source of the money.

Ra'am rejected the allegations. "We categorically reject attempts by elements within the police to link Ra'am to the compromising of electoral integrity," the party said. "The activists were arrested at their homes hours before the polls opened, not in the vicinity of polling stations or voters."

The party described the detentions as "baseless arrests intended to undermine Ra'am and suppress voter turnout within Arab society." It also accused National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of using the police for political purposes.

Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas separately denied any role in a different alleged scheme to interfere in the election through Qatar. He said he supports an investigation into that matter, and he accused Netanyahu of employing Qatari agents in his office.

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) is investigating whether foreign actors, possibly including Qatar and Turkey, sent money into Israel to sway the vote in Arab communities. The probe began on the instructions of Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the Central Elections Committee. The Shin Bet said it acted on "severe suspicions... regarding improper influence through foreign funding by entities acting against Israeli interests during the elections."