JERUALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Arab politicians of trying to steal the election, pointing to the arrests of several people, charges the accused party called a lie to boost right-wing turnout.
Netanyahu — who has used Arab Israeli parties throughout the election to stoke fears of a Palestinian state — said three senior officials of the Raam party had been arrested with envelopes full of cash in the south.
“We cannot leave this battle here in the hands of the left and the Arab parties that want to bring an end to the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said.
“So no barbecues, don’t go to the beach — go to the polling station and vote Likud,” he said of his party.
Despite being a relatively small party, Raam — also known as the United Arab List — could play a decisive role in forming an opposition-led coalition if election results are as close as expected.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is lying and inciting against the United Arab List, using it as a scare tactic to mobilize right-wing voters and drive them to the polls,” the list’s leader Mansour Abbas said in a video message.
Acting Central Elections Committee director general Dean Livne referred to the incident as “unusual,” saying that “police, even before people arrived at the polling stations, caught individuals who tried to bribe voters.”
He said the unidentified suspects were not at polling stations and were caught near their homes, adding the matter was under investigation.
“There are no similar incidents of this kind across the country; this was a localized case,” he said.
Arrests
The party of Netanyahu’s main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, accused the premier of “laying the groundwork to challenge the results.”
“We have to be ahead of Likud by a huge margin; only then will there be no room to sow doubt,” the Yashar party said.
Police confirmed three people had been arrested overnight on suspicion of trying to buy votes for Raam.
“Southern District detectives seized over NIS 24,000 (around $7,900) in cash, including pre-prepared envelopes containing money, and notes during searches of the suspects’ homes,” police said in a statement.
They attached a photo of envelopes, at least one marked with a name and others with the phrase “a gift from the Islamic movement.”
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition ally Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday claimed that Arab Israeli turnout was soaring as he urged his supporters to flock to the polls to blunt the surge.
Adalah, an Arab Israeli advocacy group, echoed Abbas’s accusation of incitement, saying it had “received numerous reports from Arab voters of obstacles facing them in Arab towns” on election day.
The reports alleged “that polling station committees slowed the voting process, including by asking irrelevant questions of Palestinian citizens of Israel... and shutting the doors and halting voting altogether.”
Adalah said it had raised the issues with the election committee.
Other opposition parties, including Eisenkot’s Yashar, have complained as voting got underway that their ballot papers were being defaced and stolen at polling stations.
“Contrary to claims circulating online, there are currently no indications of systematic tampering with ballot slips,” the Central Elections Committee was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel, adding that reports were being addressed immediately.