An Arab man casts his ballot in Israel’s general elections on April 9, 2019 in the village of Kafir Qasim, Israel. Image by Amir Levy/Getty Images

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Likud Party placed some 1,200 hidden cameras in polling stations in Arab communities, in order to catch fraudulent voting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters Tuesday afternoon that cameras are necessary to “ensure a fair vote.”

“There should be cameras everywhere, not hidden ones,” he said.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Israelis went to the polls on Tuesday to vote for a national legislature. Political parties can hire their own polling-station observers. Likud confirmed to Israeli media outlets that it hired 1,200 poll workers and gave them the cameras.

Some of the cameras were body cameras hidden on observers and party activists, the others were installed in the polling stations by right-wing activists, according to reports. Dozens of cameras were confiscated by police during the morning and afternoon.

Central Elections Committee chairman Hanan Melcer, a Supreme Court justice, issued an order prohibiting filming voters inside polling stations, unless there is a specific concern about real voter fraud.  Voters cannot be filmed arriving at the polling station or during voting.

Cameras are permitted after the polls close while the ballots are being counted. But everyone involved must be informed of the filming, which is then noted in the polling station’s minutes.

The head of the Arab party Balad Jamal Zahalka, in a complaint filed with the elections committee, called the cameras “an illegal measure meant to scare away voters.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount