Netanyahu's party 'hides cameras' inside Palestinian voting stations during Israel elections

Israel's ruling Likud Party has planted hidden cameras in Palestinian polling stations.

2 min read

09 April, 2019

Likud have planted the hidden cameras [Getty]

Israeli authorities have confiscated secret cameras planted inside Palestinian polling stations, which have been blamed on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, who is seeking re-election during Tuesday's voting.

At 11am local time, police announced that they had discovered dozens of cameras at polling stations - some of hidden - installed by right-wing activists in Palestinian-majority cities in Israel including Nazareth, Reineh and Tamra.

Activists immediately blamed the Likud Party and said that they should be immediately removed.

The Palestinian Democratic Front for Peace and Equality Party filed an urgent complaint to the central election committee and demanded the they be dismantled.

"The radical right fully understands the power we have to overthrow those in power, and [they] cross every red line through illegal measures in an attempt to intervene [in the election] and prevent the Arab citizens from voting. But we also understand the power we have, and today we are going out to vote and nothing will stop us", the party said in a statement.

Attorney Koby Matza, who represents the Likud Party blamed the Palestinian community, claiming they are trying to counteract "behaviour of the Arab community".

"The problem is in the behaviour of those people in the Arab community. I'm getting reports from polling stations all over the country where our representatives, of Likud especially, are kicked out of the polling stations in the Arab sector," he alleged.

Voter turnout of Palestinian citizens of Israel is already expected to be low this year due to calls for a boycott following anti-Palestinian propaganda during the election campaign.

A recent survey from the Abraham Fund Initiatives, an Israeli non-profit dedicated to promoting equality, forecasts nearly half of Palestinians will not vote.

It estimates turnout will drop to 51 percent from 64 percent in 2015, "spelling disaster" for Palestinian political representation in Israel.