TEHRAN - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has claimed Israel’s election was “stolen” by Palestinian citizens after their record turnout and electoral gains, even as election officials and opposition politicians dismissed the allegation as "baseless".

In a statement on Thursday, Likud warned of an attempted “Islamization of Israel” following a Shin Bet investigation into claims of foreign interference in the vote.

Israeli politicians and media outlets aligned with the Netanyahu government have accused Qatar of funding efforts to boost turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Netanyahu’s son, Yair, went further claiming Qatar, Turkey and other Arab states had stolen the election.

Qatar rejected the accusations, calling them “ridiculous and dangerous”.

"The repeated invocation of Qatar in Israeli electoral rhetoric reveals an excessive obsession with our country among certain Israeli political and media figures,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said on X, Middle East Eye reported.

"Qatar should not be used as a scapegoat for the political failures of certain Israeli politicians."

Palestinian-led parties, running on two separate electoral slates, won 19 seats, potentially giving them a decisive role in coalition negotiations.

Both rejected the allegations, accusing Netanyahu of using the investigation to delegitimize their voters.

“We are done apologizing and defending ourselves against filthy lies and baseless accusations from right-wing figures who refuse to accept the election results,” the Joint List said.

Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List (Ra’am), denied any foreign involvement and pledged full cooperation with the investigation.

“To [Netanyahu], who employs Qatari agents in his office, we have one message in response to the campaign of incitement and delegitimization he is waging against Arab citizens: there will be nothing [found], because there is nothing,” Abbas said.

The claims were also criticized by Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the main opposition bloc who is bidding to unseat Netanyahu as prime minister.

“It’s already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have embarked on a coordinated, organized campaign seeking to delegitimize the results of the election,” Eisenkot said.

The affair emerged on Thursday after it was reported that Noam Sohlberg, chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, had written to David Zini, head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service.

Sohlberg requested an investigation into suspected foreign interference through funding intended to influence the election result.

His letter did not specify the allegations or identify the suspected foreign actors.

According to Haaretz, a source said the committee had been presented with allegations that Qatar funded efforts to increase turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

However, sources told the Israeli newspaper that the claims were being blown “far out of proportion”.

Ynet and the Kan public broadcaster also reported, citing unnamed officials, that the alleged interference was a “much smaller affair than is being made out”.

Dean Livneh, director general of the Central Elections Committee, said there was no basis for claims that the election had been stolen.

"There have been many reports in the media that have no basis whatsoever," he said, citing comments by a police chief who was quoted as saying that claims of electoral fraud were "spins that are, so far, completely baseless".

Despite this, Likud quickly seized on the allegations, as opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot faced the prospect of working with Palestinian-led parties to oust Netanyahu from power.

The party urged Zionist opposition groups to rule out any agreement with the Palestinian-led slates.

Likud’s far-right partners in the outgoing government went further. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir urged the Shin Bet to arrest Palestinian party leaders.

Moshe Feiglin, a settler ranked second on the Religious Zionism party slate led by Bezalel Smotrich, called for the election results to be annulled.

He also called for security forces to be stationed at every polling station where Palestinian citizens cast their ballots.

Everyone with common sense understands that the high turnout among Arab voters, which could prove decisive in determining the composition of the next government, is a direct consequence of Netanyahu’s genocidal war in Gaza and his tacit approval of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Netanyahu is fully aware that the current government is the most radical in Israel’s history since its establishment in 1948. To secure the premiership in 2022, he forged an alliance with extremist and thuggish political figures, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Their conduct and extreme views toward Palestinians have even alarmed Israel’s Western allies, let alone Arab citizens of Israel.

Arab citizens of Israel have also realized that if they do not play an active role in shaping the country’s political future, Israeli extremists will eventually turn against them as well. They can clearly see that Netanyahu and his partners seek control over all of historic Palestine, an ambition that would entail forcibly displacing Palestinians from Gaza and annexing the remaining Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

Rather than attributing the massive turnout among Arab voters to foreign interference, Netanyahu would be better advised to examine the genocidal record of his own government and the policies that have driven Arab citizens to the ballot box.

Allegations of foreign interference in the Knesset elections are fundamentally misleading and appear to serve an ulterior political motive.