Israel's Netanyahu resorting to racist scare tactics in last-ditch effort amid ongoing election

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to media after casting his vote. (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Amid the highest voter turnout in decades, Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies resorted to racist scare tactics, including unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud, to urge their own voters to the polls.

As of 2pm local time, 44.9% of voters had cast their ballot. This is the highest turn-out since record keeping began in the 1970s.

“We’re in a war for our home,” Netanyahu said in a social media post in the early afternoon, with unsourced claims of low voter turnouts in strongholds of his Likud party. 

“Muslim Brotherhood supporters are raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections. Go out and vote, recover it!” 

In 2015, Netanyahu claimed that “Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls” in a bid to motivate his party’s base. 

The comments drew a rebuke from then-US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu apologised for them soon after winning another mandate.

A decade later he is doubling down on that political tactic. A robo-call to voters purporting to come from the prime minister made groundless accusations that Palestinian citizens of Israel were trying to “steal the election”. 

A spokesman for Netanyahu did not respond to questions about the call.

In the call, a man who sounds like the prime minister falsely claims that three leaders of the Ra’am party had been caught with envelopes full of cash. He also says that left wing women were driving Palestinian women to polling stations, which is not illegal under Israeli law.

He finishes by urging his own voters to turn out. Polling day is a holiday for most Israelis, who often use it to go to the beach, hiking or other activities with their family.

“You need to go to the polling stations. Everyone needs to vote. There is no beach. No barbecue, there is nothing (else) now,” it says. 

“Everyone must go out to vote to ensure the victory of the right against the left.” 

Earlier he shared photos that purported to show empty polling stations in Likud-supporting areas, and long lines in opposition strongholds. 

The Guardian saw long queues on Tuesday morning in areas with high support for Netanyahu and his allies, including parts of Jerusalem and the settlement of Efrat.

After casting his own ballot, far right Jewish supremacist Itamar Ben Gvir went to a Palestinian- majority town to make similar claims.

“Now in Kfar Qasim. Don’t let them win”, he posted above a social media video filmed on the outskirts of the town, the site of a notorious massacre by Israeli border police in 1956.

“Voter turnout in the Arab sector is off the charts, unprecedented.” he says. “If you want this country to remain Jewish and Zionist...then get out and vote.”

- The Guardian