Ra'am and detained Rahat doctor join calls for probe after Uvda report

Update, 16 November, 00:08 Israel time

Ra'am, the Arab party whose activists were arrested on Election Day, and a doctor from Rahat who was detained and later released have now responded to the Uvda report. N12 reported that Ra'am called the findings of the investigation grave and demanded an immediate inquiry, with everyone involved brought to justice.

Dr. Siaf Abu Riash, the doctor arrested in Rahat, a Bedouin city in the south, and then released, told N12 that he had been wronged in a shocking episode and that no suspicion was ever put to him. He said he had told investigators from his first interrogation that the case was purely political persecution, and that he was very glad justice had put a stop to it. He added that he, like all Bedouin, wants to be part of wider Israeli society.

In a further post by the same N12 reporter, a speaker who said he had been placed under arrest said he and others knew they had acted lawfully, and that he was surprised at how far the Prime Minister's Office had used its powers to detain him in order to intimidate and suppress the Arab population. He called what happened very serious.

The Times of Israel has also reported that police are said to be examining whether the Prime Minister's Office fabricated an Arab vote-buying scandal. The Prime Minister's Office has not responded to these latest statements in the available reports.

Update, 15 November, 23:08 Israel time

The fuller text of the Prime Minister's Office statement is now available, and more political and legal figures have responded to the Uvda report. In the complete statement as carried by N12, the office says that, as Israelis and the chief of staff learned from the media on election morning, a man was in fact caught holding tens of thousands of shekels in cash along with Ra'am ballot slips. Amit Segal of Channel 12 described the core suspicion as being that the Election Day arrest of Ra'am activists was arranged by people close to Netanyahu before voting began.

• Yair Lapid wrote on X that there had indeed been an attempt to steal the election, run by Likud from inside Netanyahu's office.
• Ahmad Tibi called on the Attorney General and the State Attorney to order an immediate criminal investigation of Netanyahu and his staff, describing the conduct as mafia-like.
• N12 reported that Amit Bachar, head of the Israel Bar Association, wrote to the Attorney General demanding a wide inquiry into the office, citing a suspicion that may extend to the outgoing prime minister himself.
• Joint List chair Youssef Jabareen told N12 that Netanyahu is a real threat and must be removed from office.
• Yoav Segalovitz, a Knesset member, said the revelations were grave and the government must be replaced now.

The Times of Israel reported that Eisenkot has pledged an inquiry. These are statements by political and professional figures; no official body has reported a finding.

The story as first reported

An investigation broadcast on Uvda, the Channel 12 current affairs programme presented by Ilana Dayan, alleges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff did more than file a police complaint against activists from Ra'am, an Arab party. According to Ynet's account of the programme, he also directed police toward what was described as an "intelligence source", who Uvda says is a former employee of the Prime Minister's Office and is close to Yossi Shelly. Ynet reported that the police inquiry that followed turned up nothing.

Ynet also reported that the office of the Attorney General and the police investigations department are now examining whether the information was planted on purpose, to support a campaign claiming that Arab citizens were stealing the election. The same report said the programme covered requests by Zini to wiretap and investigate Arab members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament. The Prime Minister's Office rejected the allegations, and opposition figures responded with sharp criticism within the hour.

What Uvda alleges

The core claim is about the route the information took. Ynet's summary describes a sequence in which a complaint about Ra'am activists was paired with a pointer to a specific informant, who turned out to have ties to the Prime Minister's Office. The open question that the Attorney General's office and police are reportedly weighing is intent: whether this was an ordinary referral or a deliberate effort to give official weight to the "election theft" narrative.

Barak Ravid of Axios wrote on X that Dayan's report indicates it was Netanyahu's office that tried to steal the election. Before the broadcast, Ravid quoted an unnamed senior law enforcement official who had seen details of the affair and said the events had convinced him that Israel would not see another fair election. The official said that once the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service, and the police behave this way, whether knowingly or as tools of others, fair elections cannot be guaranteed. That assessment comes from a single anonymous official cited by one journalist.

The Prime Minister's Office response

In a statement carried by News.co.il, the Prime Minister's Office called the programme "another false report" set to dramatic music, and said it was part of efforts to silence what it calls the election contamination affair. The office named the chief of staff as Ido Norden. It said criminal information had reached him and that he did what any law-abiding citizen should, putting the person in contact with the police.

The statement said any further role attributed to Norden in the report is false and grounds for a libel claim, and that he never spoke with police intelligence officials or anyone else involved in the investigation. The available text of the statement is cut off partway through a sentence referring to someone being caught on election morning, so its full argument is not in the material.

Political reactions

Gadi Eisenkot, chair of the Yashar party, attacked Netanyahu directly. N12 reported that Eisenkot said Netanyahu must not remain prime minister for even one more minute, and that as long as he stays in office there will be no further fair and legitimate elections in Israel. Ynet noted that Eisenkot spoke hours after talks on a unity arrangement, and quoted him describing Netanyahu and those around him as a tangible threat to democracy.

Yair Golan wrote on X that the Channel 12 report showed Netanyahu's office had crossed another red line. In Golan's account, there is suspicion that intelligence about citizens was planted in police systems on the eve of the election to enlist security and law enforcement agencies in a political campaign. He wrote that this was "not just another dirty election trick" but a suspected misuse of state power, said the Shin Bet and police are not Netanyahu's operational arm, and called for an immediate independent investigation. N12 also carried part of his remarks. These are Golan's characterisations; the Attorney General's review, as Ynet describes it, has not reached any finding.

Background for readers abroad

Uvda is one of Israel's best-known investigative television programmes. Ra'am is an Arab party that has sat in the Knesset. Claims that Arab voters or parties were manipulating the vote have been part of the political argument around this election, and the Prime Minister's Office frames its own concerns as an "election contamination" affair. The Uvda report challenges that framing by alleging that information behind one such suspicion originated close to the office itself.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports includes a response from the police, the Attorney General's office, Zini or Yossi Shelly. The reports do not say what the informant told police, what the requests to wiretap Arab lawmakers covered or whether any were approved, or when the Attorney General's review is expected to conclude.