Netanyahu's acting chief of staff passed Ra'am tip to police, reports say

Information that led police to arrest activists from Ra'am, an Arab political party, on the morning of Israel's election came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, according to Ynet and to posts by two prominent Israeli journalists. Ynet reported that Ido Norden passed what it described as "intelligence information" to the police, who then searched the homes of 3 suspects on election morning without a warrant.

Political commentator Amit Segal wrote on his Telegram channel that Netanyahu's acting chief of staff had sent the material straight to the office of the Police Commissioner, and that a report by journalist Guy Peleg the previous day, which Segal called "Ra'amgate", was accurate. Segal added that police repeatedly publicised and briefed reporters on the suspicions against Ra'am during election day without disclosing that the complaint originated in the Prime Minister's Office.

Who is involved

Ra'am, also known as the United Arab List, is an Arab party in Israeli politics with a significant base among Bedouin communities in the Negev, the desert region in the country's south. Barak Ravid, a journalist for Axios, wrote on X that the affair concerned Ra'am activists in the Negev, and named the acting chief of staff as Ido Norden and the commissioner as Danny Levy.

The Police Commissioner is the most senior officer in the Israel Police, a national force that answers to the government through the minister responsible for public security. Under Israeli norms, the police are expected to act independently of elected politicians in criminal matters, which is why the route the information is said to have taken has drawn attention.

Lahav 433 is the Israel Police unit that handles serious crime and corruption investigations. Segal reported that officers there acknowledge there is, for now, no case at all against the suspects.

What the suspects were accused of

According to a post by Ravid, the activists were detained on suspicion of election bribery after being found with ten thousand shekels in envelopes. That detail appears only in his post among the reports available to us.

Ynet reported that no significant evidence had yet been gathered. According to the outlet, the suspects held in custody are due to remain there until Sunday, when police will have to decide whether to free them, and 4 people have already been released to house arrest.

How the accounts differ

The reports agree that the information came from Netanyahu's office and that police have little to show for the arrests so far. They describe the state of the investigation in slightly different terms. Segal wrote that Lahav 433 concedes there is currently no case at all. Ravid wrote that, according to police, there is not yet a case against the suspects. Ynet said meaningful evidence had not yet been assembled, while also reporting that some suspects remain in custody pending a decision on Sunday.

The figures on who was arrested are also not fully reconciled. Ynet refers to 3 homes being searched and separately to 4 people released to house arrest, and does not set out how many people were detained in total.

The political dimension

Ravid, writing in a personal capacity on X, argued that intelligence had been turned into ammunition for a political campaign on election day and questioned whether the commissioner grasped how serious the matter was. He said he was not referring to separate questions about Qatari influence, but specifically to the case of the Negev activists. In a further post he wrote that in democratic states governed by law, a prime minister's office should not be directing police against political rivals on election day. These are his views and not established findings.

None of the reports includes a response from the Prime Minister's Office, from Norden, from the Police Commissioner or from Ra'am.

What the reports do not say

• Where Norden obtained the information, or what exactly it contained.
• Whether the Police Commissioner or anyone in his office personally reviewed the material before the arrests were made.
• Why, as Ynet reported, the searches were carried out without a warrant, and whether police have explained this.
• How many people were detained in total, and how many remain in custody.
• Whether the arrests or the police briefings had any measurable effect on the election.
• Whether any body, such as the police internal investigations unit or the Attorney General, has opened an inquiry into how the information reached the police.