Shin Bet chief sought to question Arab party leaders as suspects; the attorney general refused

The public broadcaster KAN reported on Tuesday that Shin Bet director David Zini sought to question three Arab party leaders in an inquiry into possible foreign interference in the Knesset election, even though law enforcement officials had found no evidence to justify questioning them. i24NEWS — an Israeli, privately owned outlet that leans right — said it had independently learned that Zini asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to approve questioning four senior Arab politicians as suspects, naming Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi, Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas, Sami Abu Shehadeh and a fourth MK. Israel National News, which is settler-aligned, matched the four names and reported the attorney general was demanding evidence before approving. The Jerusalem Post reported that Baharav-Miara denied the request on Tuesday, that the Shin Bet investigation had been opened following an initial directive from Sohlberg citing “severe suspicions,” and that Abbas denied all the allegations.

Haaretz reported the same day that Zini is refusing to hand over the evidence of purported foreign influence despite a deal with the Central Elections Committee to do so, and has withheld it from the police. The paper quoted unnamed sources describing him as acting like a “North Korean dictator” — a single anonymous characterisation, in a paywalled report, to which Zini has not responded on the record. By Wednesday the Jerusalem Post’s live file reported that Zini appeared to backtrack on the request to interrogate Arab MKs. The Joint List accused him of serving as a “political arm” for Netanyahu; Likud responded by attacking the attorney general. Gadi Eisenkot said Likud was leading a “pogrom against democracy.”

Assessment: The sequence runs backwards from how a criminal case normally proceeds: suspects named before evidence is produced, and the evidence withheld from the police force that would ordinarily hold it. That alone is the story, independent of whether interference occurred. Treat the four names with care — they come from i24NEWS and Arutz Sheva, both aligned with the government’s camp, and the broadcaster KAN counted three, not four. The attorney general’s refusal and Zini’s apparent retreat matter more than the leak: they show the gatekeeping still functioning, which is exactly what the certification fight in the lead is about.