JERUSALEM: There was growing anger among Arab political parties in Israel on Thursday after unsubstantiated claims by Prime ​Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that unprecedented Arab gains in this week’s Knesset elections were driven by foreign funding. Parties representing Israel’s 21 percent Arab minority won 19 seats in the 120-member parliament, Netyanhu’s bloc won 53, and his main rival Gadi Eisenkot won 48 seats. The results mean that neither of the two main coalitions can form a government without Arab backing.Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, head of the election commission, has requested an investigation by the Shin Bet security service into allegations by Netanyahu and his allies that Arab parties received money from Qatar. Government officials offered no evidence to back the allegations, and rival candidate Yair Golan accused Netanyahu of attempting to stir up fake controversy after failing to win a majority. “Now he is trying to challenge the election results through an ugly delegitimization campaign against the will of the people, and against the Arab public in particular.”Ahmad Tibi, one of the leaders of the Arab Joint List party, said Netanyahu had launched a “toxic campaign” to undermine the election results. Qatar described the claims as “ridiculous and dangerous in equal measure,” and Raam party chief Mansour Abbas ⁠said: “We have one message in response to the campaign of incitement and delegitimization Netanyahu is waging against Arab citizens: Nothing will come of it, because there is nothing there.”