Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party complained on Wednesday that this week’s tumultuous election was “stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state.” Netanyahu posted a statement formally attributed to his Likud party that said the election was distorted by “serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters.”
Likud said it was referring the case to the police and the Shin Bet security service, as well as Israel’s Central Elections Committee, backed up by “hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations.” The party said its evidence included “thousands of envelopes with cash and Ra’am slips, threats and violence against polling station members, multiple voting behind the curtain, voting with double identities, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited mobilization software, and more.” “This is a serious blow to Israeli democracy and the voting rights of Israeli citizens. The law enforcement agencies must act with an iron fist and in an immediate manner,” the statement said. Likud issued another statement on Thursday referring to its election theft charges as the “Ra’amgate Affair,” a play on the name of the Arab-led Ra’am Party.
