Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is reportedly deploying teams to record Arab voters outside polling stations during Tuesday’s general election. According to a report by Haaretz, the party has invested millions of shekels to recruit and pay workers tasked with monitoring these polling sites, documenting voter activities, and relaying information to party headquarters in real time.
These teams were established in recent weeks and are specifically positioned outside polling stations rather than inside, a move designed to circumvent the strict regulations that apply to official election observers. While the party has no legal authority to verify the identities of voters, sources indicate that the gathered footage could be utilized to support claims of electoral fraud should the Likud party suffer significant losses.
Senior party officials have reportedly discussed launching a campaign alleging that the election was rigged if results prove unfavorable. Sources close to the Prime Minister stated that some officials have pressed him to adopt this strategy and that he is considering the proposal, though there is no evidence that Netanyahu personally attended meetings where the plan was discussed.
One senior Likud official involved in the operation characterized the allegations of voting irregularities during the 2022 election as a trial run for the current vote. In addition to the filming teams, party observers across Israel are expected to report any unusual incidents to a dedicated election fraud monitoring center. These allegations emerge as Israelis head to the polls for the first general election since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.
