Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party sent monitors equipped with body cameras to a number of polling stations with Arab constituents on election day in Israel on Tuesday, and Arab politicians condemned the move as voter intimidation. Police, when asked about the use of cameras in polling stations, confirmed there had been "a number of suspected irregularities" in the north, where many Israeli Arabs — who comprise 21 percent of the population — live. Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party who opinion polls showed was neck-and-neck with a centrist rival, defended the filming, saying that cameras should be posted at voting stations throughout the country. In 2015 Netanyahu angered Israeli Arab leaders when he said that Arabs were flocking "in droves" to cast ballots. Analysts said the remark was an attempt to galvanize his right-wing base, and that it deepened longstanding mistrust among Arabs. On election days in Israel, representatives of most parties sit at venues to check the pre-vote identification process. Voters are then handed an envelope and go behind a screen to cast their ballot in private. Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said the cameras were illegal, and were a "direct attempt to sabotage" the freedom to vote. Arab officials at polling stations in several Arab towns in the north said the cameras were not filming behind the screens but were attached to the shirts of Likud representatives, with the camera lenses visible. Complaints came from polling stations in districts with predominantly Arab or mixed constituencies. Asked if representatives with cameras were also sent to mostly Jewish areas, a Likud spokesman said he did not know. Many in Israel's Arab communities say they face discrimination and are treated as second-class citizens. Jamil Baransi, Deputy Mayor of Reineh, an Arab town in northern Israel, said monitors from right-wing parties had brought cameras to all of 17 local polling centers. "We noticed that each one of these representatives had a camera on them, on their bodies," he said, adding that he believed the cameras were "designed to intimidate voters." He said police intervened and people with cameras had left. A Likud party official confirmed that cameras were deployed, saying it was to ensure there would be no vote rigging. — Reuters
