A-G Baharav-Miara says no evidence foreign interference could have changed Knesset election results

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara said on Sunday that she is not aware of any evidence that comes “even close” to affecting the results of last month’s Knesset election, amid an ongoing investigation into suspected foreign interference in the vote.

“I am not aware of any evidentiary basis that comes even close to being able to affect the election results, or to support a claim of influence that could lead to a change in the results,” Baharav-Miara said at the Justice Ministry’s annual conference in Eilat.

“If additional, new information that has not yet been presented is brought before us, it will be examined and handled in accordance with the law.”

She stressed that decisions on whom to investigate are made on professional grounds. “When there is an evidentiary basis, whoever needs to be investigated will be investigated. This is not a matter of right or left. It is not a matter of Jew or Arab,” she said. “So it has been, and so it will be.”

Baharav-Miara added that Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg was overseeing the matter “professionally, with statesmanship and responsibility,” and that her office would keep him updated.

Her remarks echo Sohlberg’s statement last week that even if the suspicions of foreign interference are substantiated, they would not undermine the integrity of the election or its results as a whole. The suspicions, which concern foreign funding intended to influence the vote, are being investigated by a joint team of the Shin Bet, police and prosecution.

Right-wing parties question election integrity 

Likud has claimed that Arab parties “stole” the election, allegations police said were not supported by the information available to them. 

Otzma Yehudit last week accused Baharav-Miara and the Shin Bet’s legal adviser of exerting “improper pressure” on Shin Bet chief David Zini to keep him from completing the investigation, without saying where the claim came from.