Likud MK Bismuth warns of ‘domestic interference’ in elections, points at High Court

Summoning Shin Bet chief, Knesset defense committee chair says justices’ decision to freeze comptroller appointment due to suspected tainted vote could become ‘a slippery slope’

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and ToI Staff

Today, 5:25 pm

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Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Likud MK Boaz Bismuth on Wednesday summoned Shin Bet chief David Zini for what he described as a discussion on both foreign and domestic “attempts to interfere in Israel’s electoral system” in the upcoming election later this year.

In a letter to Zini, Bismuth wrote that while Israel must guard against foreign attempts to influence elections, “it is also necessary to examine the danger of interference from within.”

He specifically referred to the High Court of Justice’s interim order, issued earlier Wednesday, freezing Michael Rabello’s appointment as state comptroller after he was elected in a controversial June 3 Knesset vote. Several Likud MKs photographed or videoed themselves voting for Rabello —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longtime lawyer and negotiator — reportedly on the instructions of senior Likud officials.

Petitioners alleged to the High Court that the process had been contaminated, violating the requirement in Basic Law: State Comptroller that members of Knesset vote by secret ballot, and argued that this component of the law was designed to bolster the office’s political independence.

The court has urged the Knesset to hold a new vote, but Speaker Amir Ohana refused. This led the court to conduct a second hearing with an expanded five-justice panel on June 28, leading to Wednesday’s interim decision.

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“We are witnessing another serious incident today, as an interim injunction has been issued freezing the appointment of the state comptroller after he was lawfully elected by the Knesset,” Bismuth wrote to Zini.

“This development raises grave concern over a slippery slope: Today it concerns the election of the state comptroller, and tomorrow it could concern Israel’s general elections,” he said.

Bismuth’s letter echoed a broader campaign by coalition lawmakers, who have repeatedly portrayed the High Court of Justice — one of the few institutional checks on government power in Israel — as an anti-democratic body for halting government policies.

Critics, including opposition lawmakers and constitutional scholars, argue the opposite, warning that the coalition’s handling of the state comptroller election offers a troubling preview of how it will conduct the national election.

Israel is set to hold national elections no later than October 27, 2026, though Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies have been reportedly pushing for an earlier election date.

Deputy Supreme Court Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg, head of the Central Elections Committee, said last week that only an emergency could, in the “last resort,” justify delaying the elections, fearing that such a delay would exacerbate the already existing “crisis” within Israeli society.

Allegations last year that the government was seeking to push off the election led former prime minister Naftali Bennett, one of Netanyahu’s main challengers, to call on security officials to resist pressure to “bend the law” and interfere in Israel’s election process.

Coalition ministers at the time said the elections would be held as planned and accused Bennett of fabricating concerns about the issue.

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