Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has formally alleged that Israel's election was 'stolen' by the Arab-led parties, issuing a sweeping statement on Wednesday, October 28, that accused them of widespread criminal offences at Arab polling stations and demanded investigations by the police, the Shin Bet security service and the Central Elections Committee (CEC). The claim is a major new development that follows the vote count itself, which Awaaz Punjab reported earlier: with most votes tallied, Netanyahu's bloc stood at 53 to 54 seats, the opposition bloc of rival Gadi Eisenkot at 48, and the two Arab-led groupings — Yousef Jabareen's Joint List and Mansour Abbas's Ra'am — at a record 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, short of the 61 needed for a majority for either main camp.
Source: IANS, Oct 29, 2026 — Election 'stolen' by Arab-led parties, says Netanyahu's Likud
"The elections in Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terror and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offences of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries and the use of illegal software to mobilise voters," the Likud statement said, in a post shared by Netanyahu on X. These are Likud's allegations; no authority has announced a finding that the alleged offences took place, and the scale the party describes has not been independently verified.
What Likud says it is handing over
Likud said it was transferring to the police, the Shin Bet and the Central Elections Committee "hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence" from what it called election theft at many Arab polling stations — including, it alleged, thousands of envelopes containing cash alongside Ra'am ballot slips, threats and violence against polling-station members, more than one person voting behind the curtain, voting under double identities, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, and the use of prohibited mobilisation software. "We demand that the Police and the Shin Bet conduct a thorough investigation into the theft of the election by these Arab parties and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," the party said, calling the alleged offences "a grave assault on Israeli democracy and the voting rights of Israeli citizens."
Source: The Media Line, Oct 29, 2026 — Netanyahu's Likud accuses Arab parties of stealing election
The election committee is reviewing — and has pushed back before
The Central Elections Committee said it was reviewing allegations of irregularities raised by political parties as part of its election-integrity monitoring, confirmed it had received Likud's request, and said parties had already been told the procedure for submitting details of polling stations whose results they believe need scrutiny. However, an election committee official dismissed claims of widespread fraud in comments reported by The Times of Israel — and the review of complaints does not, by itself, establish that the alleged offences occurred. The committee also said the counting of 'double envelope' absentee ballots — cast largely by soldiers, prisoners, medical personnel and Israeli representatives abroad — was under way, with results processed from 11,712 of 12,018 regular polling stations, representing 5,126,759 voters, and the remaining stations undergoing standard verification.
There is one confirmed incident behind part of Likud's rhetoric. On election day, Netanyahu accused people he described as Ra'am operatives of trying to steal the election, citing the overnight arrest of three people from Bedouin communities in the south on suspicion of vote-buying; police recovered cash-filled envelopes containing more than NIS 24,000 alongside Ra'am ballot slips. Police did not identify the three as senior Ra'am figures, as Netanyahu described them, and the Central Elections Committee described that incident as a localised case with no evidence of systematic fraud. Netanyahu had also spent election day warning supporters that Arab citizens were turning out in large numbers, urging right-wing voters to 'race to the ballot'.
The Arab parties Likud accuses are setting their own terms
The parties at the centre of the allegation hold the balance of power, and their leaders have spent the hours since the count setting out what they would — and would not — do. Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said his party would use its projected 12 seats 'to facilitate getting rid of Netanyahu's govt and hopefully helping to change the political situation in Israel'. He said the Joint List could not join an Eisenkot-led government because of its support for Israel's military campaign in Gaza and its occupation of southern Lebanon, but left open propping up an Eisenkot minority government from outside, in return for demands 'to protect our community, to advance the rights of our community and to promote equality for our community'. Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas, whose party is projected at seven seats, said he would join an Eisenkot-led government and that senior members of Eisenkot's bloc had discussed a possible deal with him even before the election: 'Everyone is talking to us, not just the change bloc. A few days ago, a very, very senior member of the right approached me.'
Source: Times of India, Oct 29, 2026 — Arab parties claim kingmaker status in Israel
Neither camp has an easy path through the Arab parties. Eisenkot ruled out forming a government with any of the Arab parties during the campaign, citing what he called a lack of shared values. Likud, for its part, confirmed it would not negotiate with any Arab party: 'Not a chance,' spokesman Guy Levy said at the party's headquarters in Jerusalem. 'It's not even a question that should be asked.' Turnout reached 77.7 per cent, the highest since 1999, and official results are expected to be published on November 4. What happens next now runs on two tracks at once: whether the police, the Shin Bet and the elections committee act on Likud's evidence — and whether any bloc can assemble 61 seats while the parties accused of 'stealing' the election hold the votes both sides need.