Barmy Fotheringay Phipps

The fake corruption scandal supposedly involving the Arab parties in Israel is now being weaponized to destroy the Arab parties by Netanyahu and the Shin Beit. They are starting an investigation into the leaders of all the Arab parties despite their being no evidence against any of them: 1) Shin Beit head David Zini asked for the entire election probe to be classified in advance as a security offense. That would let the Shin Bet deny suspects a lawyer, wiretap them and pull their communications data. The Attorney General told him this was illegal without evidence. He does not care. 2) His list includes Mansour Abbas (Ra’am), Sami Abu Shehadeh (Balad) and Ahmad Tibi (Ta’al), plus one other senior Arab MK whose name is under a gag order. Evidence was handed over only for that fourth MK. The AG asked for evidence on the other three. None has been provided. 3) Abbas is on the list. Ra’am sat in the Bennett-Lapid coalition and has made accommodation with the Jewish majority its whole political program. If Abbas is a suspect, then every Arab party is. 4) Zini called the probe “urgent.” Two days after a joint Shin Bet and police team was agreed, the Shin Bet still hadn’t sent its material to the police. The investigation hasn’t started. It is not urgent or improtant on an actual criminal or security level. 5) Zini fought over the wording of the press release. He wanted it to say “security offenses.” Elections chief Noam Sohlberg settled on “may have a security aspect.” In the same statement he wrote that “suspicions are suspicions” and that overturning results requires solid evidence. 6) Sara Netanyahu appears to be behind this. She reportedly told a meeting of the coalition bloc, “They are stealing the state from us. Stealing the election. Foreign countries have infiltrated.” Religious Zionism demanded that the Arab MKs be investigated “with the tools available to the Shin Bet.” 7) This follows years of attempts to disqualify Arab parties from running. The Central Elections Committee repeatedly voted to ban Balad and other Arab lists, and the Supreme Court overturned those bans. Banning the parties failed, so now the case against them is being built through the Shin Bet. Arab citizens turned out in record numbers, and Netanyahu lost. The leaders of the Arab parties are being treated as suspects anyway, and Arab voters are being cast as foreign agent. This is part of a long-term operation to outlaw all the Arab parties. Mark my words.