Key Points
- Israelis are voting for the 26th Knesset, with complaints of bribery and ballot tampering reported.
- Police arrested three southern residents suspected of paying citizens to vote for Ra'am.
- Election Day incidents include a West Bank rock attack and harassment of a broadcast reporter.
The latest:
Three residents of southern Israel were arrested Monday night on suspicion of election bribery, Israeli media reported, accused of paying citizens to vote for the Arab Ra’am party. The arrests landed hours before polls opened for Israel’s 26th Knesset election, a day that also brought a complaint over a pre-marked ballot in Beersheba and a rock-throwing attack in the West Bank.
Details:
- The arrests: Israeli media reported that police detained three people in southern Israel late Monday over suspected election bribery tied to the Arab Ra’am party. Searches of their homes turned up cash, pre-prepared envelopes and slips of paper, according to the reports. The suspects are due in court on Tuesday.
- Ballot complaint: Yisrael Beytenu said it filed an urgent complaint with the Central Elections Committee over a suspected irregularity at polling station 103 at the Branco Weiss school in Beersheba. According to the party, a voter found the envelope he was handed partially open and already containing a slip marked Mahal, representing Likud.
- Who was present: Representatives of Likud and United Torah Judaism were at the Beersheba station when the incident was reported, the party said. It did not say what action it wants the committee to take, and no response from Likud or United Torah Judaism was issued.
- West Bank attack: Army Radio reported that Palestinian assailants threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle travelling in the West Bank on Election Day, lightly wounding a 20-year-old woman. Magen David Adom evacuated her to hospital, according to the same report. The location of the attack was not specified.
- Reporter harassed: Channel 14 northern correspondent Gal Tobi told Walla she was verbally assaulted while covering voting in Haifa’s Denya neighbourhood on Tuesday morning. She said a man approached her closely, touched her filming equipment and disrupted her broadcast, claiming she was filming people in the background.
- Her account: Tobi said the man told his friends, “We don’t want Channel 14,” and that the incident left her in tears, adding that others at the polling station tried to defend her. Channel 14 published an image of its correspondent tearing up after the confrontation.
- Leaders vote: President Isaac Herzog cast his ballot in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighbourhood. Defence Minister Israel Katz, a Likud member, voted in Moshav Yinon, and Democrats chairman Yair Golan voted in Rosh HaAyin. Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot was greeted with cheers as he arrived to vote in Ashdod.
- Other MKs: MK Ofer Cassif of the Arab Joint List voted in Rehovot, while Democrats MK Naama Lazimi cast her ballot and urged supporters online to turn out, saying change was coming. Both appearances were publicised by the politicians themselves as voting continued.
Background:
Tuesday’s vote is for Israel’s 26th Knesset. The Central Elections Committee is the body that receives and rules on complaints of voting irregularities filed by parties during polling hours.
Between the lines:
The complaints surfacing in the first hours of voting cluster around two pressure points: the handling of ballots and envelopes inside polling stations, and the conduct of people around them. The bribery arrests and the Beersheba envelope complaint both turn on physical control of ballot materials, which is what party representatives stationed at polling places are there to monitor.
What’s next
The three bribery suspects are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. The Central Elections Committee’s handling of Yisrael Beytenu’s complaint, and any further party filings as polls stay open, are the next concrete markers.
