Shin Bet investigates Palestinian Authority over suspected money transfers to Arab Israeli parties – report

As part of the investigation into suspicions that foreign actors attempted to influence the Israeli elections with bribery, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet is also probing whether the Palestinian Authority transferred money to Arab parties, Channel 12 News reported Monday.

The Shin Bet started investigating last week, though suspicions so far reportedly focused on money funneled from Qatar or Turkey.

The first to reveal suspicions against the PA was hawkish Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman, who said during a press briefing earlier Monday that “The Palestinian Authority was very involved. They meddled in both Ra'am and the Joint List.”

“The Palestinian Authority caused radicalization, but the election was not stolen, and there is no concern about fraud or any need to review the election results,” he added.

On Sunday, Central Election Committee (CEC) Chairman Judge Noam Sohlberg, Shin Bet Director David Zini, and Attorney-General Gali Baharav Miara asserted that the “serious” suspicions in the investigation would not endanger the election outcome even if found to be true.

According to Channel 12, the investigation into ties to the PA is in preliminary stages. So far, there is no proof that money was transferred, and the potential amount and intended purpose have not been established yet.

Regarding the Qatar connection, the channel also reported that investigators identified a route through which money was funneled to a political figure in the Joint List party, allegedly to encourage voter turnout.

The Likud party has alleged that the Shin Bet investigation, as well as another investigation into alleged bribery against Ra’am activists, amounted to the elections being “stolen.”

Pushing back against Sohlberg’s statement, the party said “it is highly perplexing” to describe the suspicions as “very serious” while “determining in advance that they have no effect on the election results, before the investigation has concluded.”

On Monday, the Sohlberg rejected Likud’s request to delay the official certification of the election results scheduled for Wednesday. The party is reportedly considering opposing the formal approval of the results by the CEC, though the approval is a formality without binding consequences.

Sohlberg responded that the CEC “has no authority to withhold the certification of the results, nor does the committee have the authority to intervene in an ongoing investigation.”

“Any outcome whereby the committee’s presidium or its plenum decline to publish election results that have been received, and thereby extend the term of a Knesset that has completed its allotted term, contradicts fundamental democratic precepts.”

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot has sharply criticized the Likud’s behavior in the issue, accusing Netanyahu and his party of a “destructive and violent campaign of delegitimization against the election results” and of “a direct assault on Israeli democracy.”

The Likud party has also accused its long-time nemesis, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, of obstructing the Shin Bet investigation following a Channel 13 report which said she had demanded to give her approval before parliamentary aides from the Joint List could be questioned.

Baharav-Miara reportedly required investigators to present an evidentiary basis for the suspicions against the Knesset Member before she would consider whether to authorize questioning of the lawmaker and parliamentary aides.

“In Baharav-Miara's campaign of persecution, she readily approved investigations of ministers, Knesset members, the prime minister's chief of staff, advisers to the prime minister, advisers to ministers, and others,” the party said, accusing her of double standards.

“Now, when it comes to a serious case of foreign interference in Israel's elections, she is doing everything in her power to thwart efforts to uncover the truth,” Likud added.