Israeli President calls for respect for the Israeli Arab vote

O Israeli President Isaac Herzog today called for the Israeli Arab vote not to be stigmatised at a time when the supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu accused the minority parties of electoral fraud.

The candidacy of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Allied parties accused Israel's Arab political formations of foreign funding.

For the Israeli Head of State, suspicions should be investigated but warned that it is “need” to avoid discrediting an entire community that exercised the right to vote.

The Arab parties of Israel conquered an unprecedented number of seats in the legislative elections held last Tuesday.

The parties supporting Benjamin Netanyahu intensified the attacks against the Arab Israeli parties — which, about to get a significant vote in the legislative elections — and accused them of receiving funds from abroad.

With the counting of more than 90% of the votes, the two main Israeli Arab political formations — the Raam and the Unified List — add up to an unprecedented total of 19 places.

The result is an unprecedented mobilization of the Arab minority against the Netanyahu Government.

On Wednesday night, the President of the Electoral Commission, Noam Sohlberg, sent a letter to the Information Service (Shin Bet) requesting the opening of an investigation into suspicions that parties would have received financial support from foreign countries.

Although he did not specify that parties would be under suspicion or on what grounds the request was based, Sohlberg requested the investigation in order to “find evidence to support or refute such suspicions”.

The letter did not mention the specific countries but various Israeli authorities and media pointed to Qatar and even Turkey.

The Arab parties did not react immediately to these new accusations.