Joint List Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi returned to Israel after a rapid 24-hour visit to Doha, the capital of Qatar, where he gave a special broadcast interview on the 26th Knesset elections for the state-funded network Al Jazeera.
2+Tibi spent roughly a day in the Gulf state before boarding a return flight to Israel. Official details have not confirmed whether the lawmaker conducted political consultations with Qatari state representatives during his brief stay, and authorities have presented no evidence linking his travel directly to ongoing criminal investigations.
Nevertheless, the disclosure of his pre-election presence in Doha has drawn intense scrutiny across the political landscape, coinciding with active police and intelligence operations examining suspected foreign financing and voter bribery in the Arab sector.
The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of an official national security inquiry directed by Central Elections Committee Chairman, Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg.
Justice Solberg formally referred allegations to Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director David Zini, instructing the agency to investigate serious suspicions of illicit foreign intervention and overseas funding designed to sway the 26th Knesset race. “Severe suspicions have been brought before me regarding improper influence on the elections through foreign funding from overseas elements acting against Israeli interests,” Justice Solberg wrote in his official referral. He emphasized that statutory authorities carry an institutional obligation to deploy intelligence assets to verify or refute the allegations.
2+Simultaneously, the Israel Police Central Unit has expanded its operational clampdown in the Negev, arresting suspects caught in possession of tens of thousands of shekels in cash envelopes distributed alongside official ballots for Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party. The scope of the scandal, dubbed “Ra’amgate” by coalition lawmakers, widened significantly after Channel 14 military analyst Noam Amir said intelligence materials point to millions of shekels from hostile foreign states being funneled into local precincts to buy votes and artificially boost turnout.
The convergence of suspected overseas money trails and foreign media appearances has provoked fierce backlash across the coalition.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded that law enforcement broaden the investigation to include parliamentary leadership.
“The suspicion of swinging elections using foreign Islamist money is a defining test for the State of Israel,” Smotrich stated, adding that “the heads of the Arab parties must be interrogated by the Shin Bet this very day.”
2+While Tibi’s office maintains the travel was strictly journalistic, the revelation ensures that foreign links to the Arab electoral campaign remain at the center of national security and parliamentary debate