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Arab voters in Israel faced slowdowns, temporary polling station closures and missing Arabic-language ballot slips during Tuesday's election, rights group Adalah said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned supporters about rising Arab turnout.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, announced that it raised the reports with the Central Elections Committee and regional committees, demanding they intervene immediately.
"When the delays are concentrated in Arab towns, the damage is done not only to the voting rights of those affected, but to the principle of equal participation in the electoral process," Adalah said.
The group said the reports from many Arab towns raise concern that they are "not isolated irregularities but a wider, recurring pattern."
Polling station committees slowed voting, including by asking voters irrelevant questions and shutting doors to halt voting altogether, Adalah said.
At one polling station in Kafr Qara, only one person had voted by 10:00 a.m., three hours after polls opened, according to a report the group received. In Segev Shalom in the Negev, a polling station was reportedly closed for a significant period, with at least 150 voters waiting outside at one point.
Adalah said ballot slips with Arabic text were missing at polling stations in Haifa, Nazareth, I’billin, Eilabun, Shefa-‘Amr and Nof HaGalil, and demanded the committee supply them immediately.
In a video at the entrance to Kafr Qassem, Ben-Gvir described Arab turnout as "crazy," telling supporters: "If you want this country to be Jewish and Zionist, you must go out and vote… Don’t let them win," Adalah said.
Netanyahu claimed "they are trying to steal the election from us" and that "the future of the Jewish state is at stake," according to media reports cited by the group.
Netanyahu posted an image on X that he said showed Arab voters in Rahat. "This is what is happening today in Rahat. You cannot stay home; go out immediately and vote Likud. We are fighting for our homeland," he wrote.
The Joint List said the image was "not real and generated by artificial intelligence," accusing Netanyahu of using fabricated images to incite against Arabs. There was no immediate response from Netanyahu.
Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said Arab participation was being misrepresented.
"Since the morning, turnout in Arab towns has indeed been higher than in the past, but turnout in Jewish towns is higher, and there is a large gap between turnout in Jewish and Arab communities," Tibi said, urging voters to stay at polling stations despite "obstruction and delays."
"Netanyahu, you continue to incite against Arab citizens and question our legitimacy to vote and influence the political map," Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said. "The Arab public knows how to punish you today and send you and your blood-soaked government home."
Arab citizens make up 18% of eligible voters, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
Separately, Ben-Gvir accused Netanyahu on X of having "promised the U.S. administration that, following the election, he would form a unity government with Gadi Eisenkot, and without Ben-Gvir," citing an Israel Hayom report.
"How many times are you going to keep repeating this trick?" Netanyahu replied, calling it an "election trick."
Polls close at 10:00 p.m., and exit polls are expected shortly after.
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