Israel
Three arrested on suspicion of bribing voters for Ra'am as Israel heads to polls
By Jewish Life Staff, . Jewish Life.
Three men from the Bedouin communities of Segev Shalom and Ar'ara BaNegev were arrested overnight and held on suspicion of bribing citizens to vote for the Ra'am party, Israel's Arab Islamist political movement, hours before polls opened on Tuesday. The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel both reported the arrests, and i24NEWS added that Ra'am filed a formal complaint with the Central Elections Committee over the incident.
What police found
Officers searching the suspects' homes found cash totaling tens of thousands of shekels inside envelopes, along with notes and other items believed to be connected to the alleged offenses, according to The Jerusalem Post. The three men were handed to the Southern District's Fraud Unit, and police sought a court order to extend their detention. The case was subsequently transferred to Lahav 433, Israel's national serious-crimes investigative unit.
Acting Director General of the Central Elections Committee, Attorney Din Livne, described the episode as isolated. The Jerusalem Post quoted Livne saying the suspects were "caught in their vehicle, not in the vicinity of the polling stations," and that there "are no other such cases."
Ra'am's response
Ra'am flatly 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 in a statement quoted by the Jerusalem Post. The party said the men were detained at their homes, not near polling stations or voters, and called the arrests "baseless" and designed to suppress Arab turnout. Ra'am attributed the move to what it called the political exploitation of Israel Police by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
i24NEWS reported that Ra'am separately filed a complaint with the Central Elections Committee, saying the party had been targeted.
Netanyahu's call for investigation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the incident in a Tuesday statement. "Three suspects were arrested in possession of envelopes containing cash, along with ballots for Mansour Abbas," Netanyahu said, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post, calling on law enforcement to investigate. Netanyahu also used the statement to urge right-wing voters to turn out for his Likud party.
The Jerusalem Post noted that, according to Israeli media reports, the three men were detained roughly four hours before polls opened and were not near any polling station at the time of arrest, a detail that both Ra'am and the elections committee official also emphasized.
Sources
1. Three arrested over suspected attempt to bribe citizens for Ra'am vote, Netanyahu calls for probe, jpost.com
2. Three arrested over alleged scheme to bribe people to vote Ra'am, police say, timesofisrael.com
3. Three residents of the Bedouin diaspora arrested for election bribery; Ra'am files complaint with CEC - i24NEWS, i24news.tv