Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday highlighted an investigation alleging that the government led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett transferred millions of shekels to Arab initiatives that denied the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Netanyahu on his official social media account shared a segment from the morning show on Radio 103FM with Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal.
“HaKol HaYehudi published something amazing,” Magal says in the 29-second radio segment tweeted by the prime minister. “One of the NGOs that Bennett and [coalition partner MK] Mansour Abbas transferred funds to for Arab society ... in activities for Arab youth, they promote awareness of the ‘right of return’ to Arab villages destroyed in 1948.
“This is one of the NGOs that Bennett, ... together with Mansour Abbas, transferred millions to,” Magal says, adding that Minister for Social Equality May Golan (Likud Party) canceled the funds after Netanyahu was reelected as prime minister on Nov. 1, 2022.
“Watch: The HaKol Hayehudi investigation reveals where the millions from Bennett and Abbas’s programs went?” commented Netanyahu.
The government headed first by Bennett and then Prime Minister Yair Lapid, which was in office between June 2021 and December 2022 and backed by Abbas’s United Arab List (Ra’am), in October 2021 passed a five-year plan to reduce socioeconomic gaps in Arab-Israeli society.
However, according to an investigation by the Hebrew-language HaKol HaYehudi site published on Feb. 22, the Takadum (“Progress”) plan helped fund programs to strengthen “Palestinian” identity among Arab Israelis.
Anti-Israel propaganda
According to the report, the Midad NGO—which was officially described as a “national initiative dedicated to promoting social engagement and participation” among young Arab Israelis—received millions from the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry and the National Insurance Institute.
Among the initiatives supported by Midad were said to be an NGO that holds walking tours along what it describes as Palestinian landmarks in Jerusalem; a pro-Palestinian student group at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and INJAZ Palestine, which creates anti-Israel propaganda, including videos exposing “crimes of the occupation in Jerusalem.”
The report cited activities carried out by local operators of the Midad program, including visits to villages of Damun and Al-Khalisa, which were destroyed in the 1948-49 War of Independence. Many Arabs regard the two villages as a symbol of the “right of return” for Palestinians.
The HaKol HaYehudi report also said that an official Midad document directed participants to programming developed by Baladna (“Our Country”), a youth group affiliated with Balad, a far-left Arab nationalist political party.
Midad trainees in eastern Jerusalem allegedly participated in activities with the Yabous Cultural Centre, which “aspires to revive the centrality of Jerusalem to Palestinian cultural life.” On Jan. 22, 2026, the Israel Police raided the center after it screened a pro-terrorism movie.
“In conclusion, a governmental initiative funded by the tax money of Israeli citizens educates and empowers Arab youth for the benefit of Palestinian identity and activity,” according to HaKol HaYehudi.
Netanyahu on Jan. 17 accused Bennet and Lapid of again seeking to form a coalition with the Islamist Ra’am Party after the next election.
Asked in 2024 about his views of Hamas, Abbas said the terrorists are “part of the Palestinian people.” He also urged ending the recent war, claiming the Israeli military “murdered” 50,000 Gaza civilians.
Also in 2024, a probe by Israel’s Justice Ministry found evidence that entities controlled by Ra’am “transferred funds or cooperated with organizations outside of Israel that were declared as terror groups.”
According to a probe published in February 2024, Igatha 48 (“Aid 48") transferred large sums to and carried out joint activities with a Turkish organization called Khir Ummah, which serves as a Hamas front group.
Igatha 48 serves as a fundraising arm of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which the Ra’am Party represents in the Knesset.
Between 2020 and 2023, Igatha 48 transferred more than $120,000 to Khir Ummah, and the two organizations hosted pro-terror summer camps for children in Turkey, HaKol HaYehudi previously reported.
The Tel Aviv District Court on April 8, 2024, rejected a request by Igatha 48 to unfreeze its accounts held at Israel’s Bank Leumi. During the court proceedings, lawyers for the Jewish state’s largest bank said the red flags surrounding the charity were “shocking.” The group acknowledged in court that 10 banks had refused to open accounts for it in the past.
