Published: 10 April 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE 2015 ELECTION is remembered mainly for Benjamin Netanyahu’s racist call to his supporters to go and vote, because “the Arabs are going to the polls in droves.” The 2019 election will apparently be remembered for how Israel’s Arab citizens did exactly the opposite.
The previous Knesset incited against Arab voters, alienated them and drove them to despair. And at least according to preliminary data and the exit polls, the result was an all-time low in Arab turnout, which improved only slightly following a dramatic last-minute effort.
This failure, which undermines the entire democratic system, has many fathers.
FULL STORY Netanyahu's incitement against Arabs in 2015 proved a big success in 2019 election (Haaretz)
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Arabs blast ‘racist’ Likud scheme to install cameras at polling stations (Times of Israel)
Many residents of Tamra and Shfaram say cameras did not frighten them; party attorney claims they were intended ‘to preserve the integrity of the vote’
Israel election 2019: Netanyahu's party places 1,200 hidden cameras in Arab polling sites (Haaretz)
Police confiscated dozens of cameras while the Central Elections Committee's legal counsel said filming in polling stations was not allowed. Netanyahu: Cameras should be everywhere
Photo: An Israeli-Arab woman casting her ballot as Israelis began voting in a parliamentary election, at a polling station in Haifa (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
