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Likud claims election 'stolen' by Arab parties, demands investigation ...

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Likud claims election ‘stolen’ by Arab parties, demands investigation into alleged fraud

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Claiming yesterday’s election was “stolen” by Arab parties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party demands an investigation by police and the Shin Bet into allegations of widespread voter fraud and intimidation.

“The elections in Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terror and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries and the use of illegal software to mobilize voters,” insists the Likud party in a statement.

, Ra’am and the Joint List, which run in every election and hold seats in the Knesset, received a record number of votes yesterday, and are projected to win a historic high of 19 seats. That number means that both Netanyahu’s bloc and the Jewish-led parties opposing him will be far from achieving a Knesset majority.

Throughout the campaign, Netanyahu’s party said was illegitimate. In its statement today, Likud says it is giving the police, the Shin Bet, and the Central Elections Committee “hundreds of testimonies” and other evidence, including “thousands of envelopes with cash and Ra’am slips, threats and violence towards ballot committee members, multiple voters behind the voting screen, double voting, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, use of illegal voter mobilization software, and more.”

Likud demands a “thorough investigation” and an immediate response from the CEC regarding an investigation.

Earlier today, in an interview with Channel 12, an official from the CEC dismissed claims of fraud in the election.

The Times of Israel Community.

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What we found (1)

The Times of Israel reports Likud's claim that the election was 'stolen' and attributes it clearly, closing with a CEC official dismissing the fraud claims. In its own voice it calls Ra'am and the Joint List only 'Arab-led' and 'Arab' parties. It never names the Palestinian citizens of Israel whose record vote it reports.

  1. Erases a people's national identity

    Serious

    “The Arab-led political parties”

    Why this matters
    In its own voice the outlet calls Ra'am and the Joint List 'The Arab-led political parties' and reports their record vote without saying who cast it.
    The impression it gives
    The parties and the record turnout behind them belong to an ethnic 'Arab' bloc inside Israel, with no link to the Palestinian people.
    The context
    The voters behind these parties are Palestinian citizens of Israel, most of whom have described themselves with a label that includes Palestinian. The article never uses the word Palestinian anywhere, so their national identity drops out of the event it reports.

    How we know

    • Our analysis“61.9% chose a description of themselves that included Palestinian”Palestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers
    • On the recordIn Sammy Smooha's April-June 2019 survey of 718 adult Arab citizens of Israel, including Druze and Bedouin, 61.9% chose a self-description containing Palestinian. This is historical survey evidence, not a 2026 percentage or proof of any individual's identity. Arab and Palestinian identities can coexist.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

    “cooperation with Arab parties”

    Why this matters
    The outlet sums up Likud's campaign line in its own words as opposition to 'cooperation with Arab parties', repeating the Arab-only label.
    The impression it gives
    Likud's campaign target was an ethnic group of parties, and the dispute is about Arabs rather than about the representatives of Palestinian citizens.
    The context
    The outlet had a choice of words here, since it is paraphrasing and not quoting. Supplied evidence shows a majority of these citizens identify as Palestinian, and the article nowhere says so.

    How we know

    • Our analysis“61.9% chose a description of themselves that included Palestinian”Palestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers
    • On the recordIn Sammy Smooha's April-June 2019 survey of 718 adult Arab citizens of Israel, including Druze and Bedouin, 61.9% chose a self-description containing Palestinian. This is historical survey evidence, not a 2026 percentage or proof of any individual's identity. Arab and Palestinian identities can coexist.newscord.org (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Ra'am and the Joint List, the parties of Palestinian citizens of Israel, which run in every election and hold seats in the Knesset, received a record number of votes yesterday.

How other outlets reported it

Our analysisPalestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers

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