Israeli Election Turnout Hits Historic High as Netanyahu Alleges Fraud and Violence Mars Voting
By The Media Line Staff
More than 4 million Israelis had voted by 4 p.m. Tuesday in the country’s 26th Knesset election, producing the highest turnout recorded at that hour since at least 1973, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused political opponents of attempting to steal the election and reports of violence and intimidation emerged from several polling locations.
The Central Elections Committee reported turnout of 55.7% by 4 p.m., compared with 47.5% at the same hour in the November 2022 election, an increase of 8.2 percentage points. By 2 p.m., turnout had already reached 44.9%, compared with 38.9% four years earlier.
The unexpectedly heavy participation prompted election officials to issue new instructions aimed at reducing long lines. Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne directed polling station workers to begin checking the identification of the next voter while the preceding voter was casting a ballot.
Officials also clarified that expired identification cards could be accepted if the photograph clearly established the voter’s identity. Polling stations were instructed to continue processing voters while resolving complicated identification issues separately.
Turnout was particularly strong in several Arab and Bedouin communities. By 4 p.m., approximately 61% of eligible voters had participated in Rahat and Kafr Qassem, while turnout in the Bedouin communities of Lakiya and Kuseife reached approximately 63% and 58%, respectively.
The figures became a central issue in increasingly confrontational appeals by party leaders.
Netanyahu warned supporters that turnout among Arab and left-wing voters was threatening his governing coalition and urged Likud voters to get to polling stations.
In a video message, the prime minister claimed that “they are trying to steal the election from us,” referring to the arrest of three men from southern Bedouin communities on suspicion of offering money to people to vote for the Arab party Ra’am.
Police said searches of the suspects’ homes uncovered envelopes containing tens of thousands of shekels.
Ra’am rejected the allegations as politically motivated, saying the arrests occurred at the suspects’ homes before voting began, rather than at polling stations. The party accused authorities of attempting to discourage Arab citizens from voting.
Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party responded by accusing Netanyahu of preparing to challenge the election results if his coalition loses.
The Central Elections Committee said it had found no evidence of systematic interference with ballot slips and was addressing individual complaints as they arose.
Separately, committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg issued an interim order prohibiting the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party and its polling station representatives from tracking and transmitting voter participation information.
The ruling followed a petition by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and reports that party representatives were recording which voters had cast ballots, despite an earlier High Court ruling restricting such activity.
Election Day was also marked by several incidents of violence.
In Tel Aviv, police arrested a man carrying a knife after he approached Democrats party leader Yair Golan while the opposition politician was campaigning in Mesila Park.
Golan’s party alleged that the man had apparently attempted to stab him. Police confirmed that a suspect in his 20s had been detained with a knife but explicitly denied that an attempted stabbing had occurred.
In Holon, two Democrats activists were punched at a campaign booth, with one reportedly losing consciousness. Video footage showed a man striking the activists, knocking one to the ground.
The party alleged that the attacker was associated with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party. That affiliation had not been independently established.
Additional disturbances were reported in ultra-Orthodox communities. Moti Leitner, chairman of the Haredi Public party, said his organization had received hundreds of complaints involving intimidation, threats, and interference with voting.
Videos from Modi’in Illit showed young men vandalizing a campaign booth and setting election materials on fire. The party alleged that some voters had been threatened with retaliation if they supported its candidates.
Despite the incidents, election officials continued to report no evidence of nationwide or coordinated electoral interference.
The unusually high turnout could prove decisive in a contest where several parties are hovering near the 3.25% electoral threshold, and neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the principal opposition parties are assured of a parliamentary majority.
Most polling stations are scheduled to close at 10 p.m., although election officials have pledged that anyone waiting in line by closing time will be allowed to vote. Extended voting could delay the television exit polls normally released at 10 p.m., pushing back the first projections of the next Knesset’s composition.
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