Bedouin doctor released without bail after police fail to present evidence in Ra'am probe

A court ordered the unconditional release of Saef Abu Raesh, a Bedouin doctor arrested on election day in connection with an alleged vote-buying scheme favoring the Ra'am party. Speaking to Haaretz on Monday, one day after his release, Abu Raesh stated that investigators never showed him evidence supporting the charges against him.

Abu Raesh operates a small clinic in Rahat, a southern Bedouin town, where he organized efforts to encourage local residents to vote. He reported that investigators questioned which party he urged people to support and whether he understood his activities could influence who would lead the country. During a transfer between police stations, an officer reportedly asked why Arabs were unhappy with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, claiming the minister had done "only good" for them by providing law and order. Abu Raesh said this exchange convinced him the investigation was politically driven.

The doctor described his dawn arrest as humiliating. Police knocked on his door while his pregnant wife and young daughters slept. He was taken to a station in handcuffs. Despite being told officers would take him to vote, Abu Raesh said he never cast a ballot. An officer at the Dimona station later questioned why he was raising the matter only after his release.

Abu Raesh was one of three people detained on election day. One other detainee was placed under house arrest, while the third remained in custody. Four additional people were arrested later. Three of those four were placed under house arrest, and the fourth had restrictions removed after his lawyer appealed. Ben Gvir's tenure has seen a sharp rise in demolitions of unpermitted Bedouin homes and a roughly twofold increase in annual homicides across Arab society.

The case has become part of a dispute over an election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition lost its majority. Netanyahu has used the Ra'am allegations and a separate probe into suspected foreign interference involving Qatar to challenge the results. Officials have maintained the results are valid and the investigations are limited in scope. On Sunday, Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg said the election was conducted properly.

Sohlberg appeared in a video with Shin Bet chief David Zini, acting director-general Dean Livne, and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Likud subsequently questioned how Sohlberg could call the foreign interference allegations serious while concluding they had not affected the outcome before the investigation finished. Netanyahu had described the three election-day suspects as senior Ra'am financial operatives trying to steal the election. Abu Raesh's lawyer, Ali Abu Laban, told Army Radio his client was not a Ra'am activist and had encouraged voting to improve conditions in Arab society. The lawyer also challenged the initial detention extension, noting police found neither money nor envelopes at the doctor's home.