Elections committee chair Solberg rebukes police over leaked opinion in probe

The chair of Israel's Central Elections Committee, Solberg, has criticised the police for leaking an opinion he wrote on suspected foreign interference in Israeli elections, saying such leaks have caused repeated damage to the investigation. According to a post by journalist Amit Segal, Solberg wrote in a letter that the harm fell above all on the inquiry's security aspects, described the leak as "a grievous evil" and said he had raised the matter "severely" that same day.

Solberg also set out how far the case has progressed. N12 correspondent Dafna Liel reported that he said classified information had been presented to him that had not matured into evidence, adding that it might never do so. At the same time, Ynet reported that he said the information calls for a vigorous investigation.

What the Central Elections Committee does

The Central Elections Committee is the body that organises and supervises national elections in Israel. It is made up largely of representatives of the parties in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, but it is chaired by a Supreme Court justice, which gives the chair a quasi-judicial role in election disputes and in questions about the integrity of the vote. That is the capacity in which Solberg was asked to give an opinion on the interference allegations.

The reports describe the matter as a case of foreign interference in elections but do not, in the material available, name the country or actors suspected, or which election is at issue.

The dispute over investigation requests

Part of Solberg's letter addressed whether law enforcement had been blocked from pursuing the case. According to Segal's account of the letter, Solberg wrote that he had not found that the Attorney General's legal advisory had turned down investigation requests submitted to it by the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency. He added that he had been assured any request that is submitted would be examined quickly.

The Attorney General in Israel serves as the government's chief legal adviser and also heads the public prosecution, so the office has a central say in whether sensitive investigations, particularly those touching on politics or national security, go ahead. The Shin Bet, formally the Israel Security Agency, is responsible for counterintelligence and internal security, which would include foreign attempts to influence Israeli politics. Solberg's remark on this point suggests that questions had been raised about whether the Shin Bet's requests had been held up; his letter, as reported, rejects that.

Two messages in one letter

Taken together, the reports show Solberg making two points that pull in different directions. On one hand, he says the material he saw is classified intelligence rather than evidence that could stand up in a legal process, and that it may never reach that threshold, as N12 reported. On the other, Ynet's alert quotes him as saying the information requires a determined investigation. The reports do not contradict each other; they appear to reflect different parts of the same statement, but each outlet foregrounded a different part.

His sharpest language was reserved for the leak itself. Both Ynet and Segal reported his complaint that leaks were doing repeated harm to the inquiry. According to Segal, Solberg attributed the leak of his opinion to the police.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not include any response from the Israel Police to the accusation that it leaked Solberg's opinion, nor from the Attorney General's office or the Shin Bet. They do not say what the leaked opinion contained, who received it, or what Solberg meant when he said he had commented on the leak, including to whom. They do not identify the foreign party suspected of interference or the election concerned, and they do not say whether any formal investigation has been opened or what decision, if any, is expected on the Shin Bet's requests.