Israel elections chief says Qatar funding inquiry will not overturn vote

The head of Israel's Central Elections Committee said on Sunday that an investigation into alleged foreign funding in the country's recent election would not change its outcome, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party continued to claim that Arab parties had "stolen" the vote.

Noam Sohlberg, a Supreme Court justice who chairs the committee, gave the assurance in a video message alongside the head of the Shin Bet security agency and the attorney general. "Your choice at the ballot box will be respected," he said, in an account of the statement carried by the Bangkok Post.

"The elections to the 26th Knesset were conducted properly. If any irregularities exist, they are currently under review," Sohlberg said.

Shin Bet opened the inquiry last week at Sohlberg's request to establish whether Raam, an Arab Israeli party, received money from Qatar. Both Qatar and the party deny the accusation.

"Suspicions remain suspicions," Sohlberg said. "Our position is that even if the suspicions are ultimately confirmed, this would not call into question the integrity of the electoral process or the overall results of the elections." He said the review would be conducted "in utmost seriousness" but that "these remarks must in no way cast doubt on the vote of the Arab community".

Raam leader Mansour Abbas has said his party had "no connection whatsoever to the affair" and welcomed an investigation. Qatar called the accusations "ridiculous and dangerous".

Netanyahu and Likud have accused Arab parties of stealing the vote since election day, after those parties made unprecedented gains that could make them decisive in forming an opposition-led government. Arab citizens, descendants of Palestinians who remained after Israel's creation in 1948, are about 20 percent of the population. A campaign in which Netanyahu cast Arab parties as a threat helped drive record turnout among them, according to the Bangkok Post account.

Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main challenger, who is weighing whether to accept Arab party support to form a government, has accused the prime minister of "seeking to delegitimise the results of the election".

The committee's acting director said on the day the probe was announced that any suggestion of widespread problems was "entirely groundless".