Israeli security chief tells right-wingers to vote and weaken
'Arab influence'

Israel's public security minister has urged right-wing voters to take to the polls to make sure Palestinian citizens of do not secure parliamentary seats.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

09 April, 2019

Gilad Erdan doesn't want Palestinain citizens of Israel to be in the Knesset [Getty]

Israel's public security minister has urged supporters to vote in order to lessen the representation Palestinian citizens just hours after his party was accused of planting hidden cameras in Palestinian polling stations on Tuesday.

Gilad Erdan said that the incentive for his party's right-wing supporters in voting during Tuesday's election should be to prevent Palestinian citizens of Israel from gaining seats in the Knesset.

"The fall of the United Arab List will consolidate our rule and strengthen the power of the right and weaken our rivals"

Israeli authorities said on Tuesday they had confiscated secret cameras planted inside polling stations in Palestinian-majority areas, which have been blamed on activists from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud Party.

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.