Yashar Asks Officials to Block Netanyahu Meeting With Police Chief on Election Integrity

Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party said on Sunday that it had urged Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and Central Elections Committee (CEC) chairman Noam Sohlberg to halt a meeting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened with Police Commissioner Danny Levy on the subject of election integrity. The party warned that the session could damage public confidence in the outcome of the vote.

According to reports, the meeting was set for Sunday and would also include National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. No representatives of the CEC were expected to take part. The dispute comes two days before Tuesday's Knesset election.

Netanyahu's office pushed back on the idea that the meeting was out of the ordinary. It told Ynet News that discussions of this kind are held ahead of every election.

Yashar made its case on several grounds. It noted that Netanyahu is himself a candidate, that he bears no responsibility for overseeing the integrity of the election, and that he has no authority over the police commissioner on that matter. The party sent its request to Baharav-Miara and to Sohlberg, who chairs the committee that administers the election.

"The unusual meeting raises concern about an attempt to create a false impression that election integrity has been compromised, without any basis, in order to undermine public confidence in the results in advance," the party said.

Yashar also accused the prime minister of potentially trying to pressure public servants in order to advance his political interests.

Reports indicate that Levy had declined to attend a similar discussion that Ben-Gvir had called earlier.

The commissioner had already met about a week and a half before with Dean Livne, the CEC's acting director-general, to prepare for the election. That discussion dealt with police arrangements for election day, the maintenance of public order, and steps to ensure that voting could take place safely and properly.

Levy said he had given officers an explicit instruction not to express political views while serving, and cautioned that anyone who broke it would not be able to remain in the force. He added that police were preparing for a range of scenarios in order to protect the integrity of the election.