Netanyahu warns of Arab voter surge in Israel's election; Arab leaders call tactic racist

By Alexander Cornwell

JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners made a last-ditch push on Tuesday to get their supporters to the polls, warning of surging Arab voter turnout, a tactic Arab politicians denounced as racist and inflammatory.

Cars flying Netanyahu’s Likud party flags drove through Jerusalem blaring the Islamic call to prayer and urging supporters to cast their ballots because “Arabs are voting”, witnesses said.

In a series of posts, Netanyahu highlighted long queues at polling stations in Arab communities and published an image that he said showed Arabs, including women in niqabs, waiting to vote.

“If we don’t wake up now, we’ll find ourselves with a government of Mansour Abbas and Ahmed Tibi,” he said in a post, referring to two leading Palestinian Arab politicians in Israel.

Turnout reached 55.7% in the first nine hours of voting, the elections committee said, the fastest pace on record. Arabs, mostly of Palestinian heritage, make up about 21% of Israel’s population of 10 million and have traditionally voted at lower rates than Jewish Israelis.

Tibi, a candidate from an Arab party, said strong turnout among Israel’s Arab minority would “pave the way for an alternative government and change the grave reality”.

Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Arab Balad party, wrote on X that long lines outside polling stations should bring “pride and joy to anyone who believed in democracy”.

“We are receiving all these inciting messages from the petty racists, Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu, and their partners. What are they afraid of? This is actually an excellent sight, it is good for democracy.”

NETANYAHU HAS REPEATEDLY DESCRIBED ARAB VOTERS AS A THREAT

Netanyahu’s warnings echoed previous election campaigns in which he sought to mobilise right-wing supporters by portraying strong Arab participation as a threat, drawing accusations of racism from opponents.

The election is the first since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack and the subsequent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Four years of Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition have coincided with a surge in violent crimes in Israel’s Arab communities, including many murders linked to organised crime.

Polls suggest Netanyahu’s coalition is on course to lose its parliamentary majority, although opposition parties may also struggle to secure the 61 seats needed to form a majority government.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has overseen a policy of destroying homes of Arabs that were built illegally, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has promoted “Judaizing” areas in northern and southern Israel where many Arabs live. Both ministers have been sanctioned by Western countries over accusations they incited violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Ben-Gvir described the level of Arab voter turnout as “crazy”, urging supporters to vote for his Jewish Power party if they wanted the country to be Jewish and Zionist.

Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party said the finance minister had suspended his election day campaigning to convene an emergency meeting to discuss what it described as unusually high turnout among Arab voters.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, additional reporting by Steven Scheer & Lina Obeid; Editing by Ros Russell)