Reports of delays and missing Arabic ballot slips in Arab towns as Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir incite against Arab voters

Since polls for Israel’s Knesset elections opened this morning, 27 October 2026, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel has received numerous reports from Arab voters of obstacles facing them in Arab towns. The reports describe the slowing down or stopping of admission into polling stations, and a lack of ballot slips printed in Arabic. Adalah has raised these matters with the Central Elections Committee (CEC), and relevant Regional Elections Committees, demanding that they examine the reports and intervene immediately where necessary.

Reported delays and closures

Adalah also received reports that polling station committees slowed the voting process, including by asking irrelevant questions of Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) trying to vote, , and shutting the doors and halting voting altogether. At one polling station in Kafr Qara in the center of the country, according to the report received, only one person had voted by 10:00 am, three hours after polling stations opened at 7:00 am. In Segev Shalom, in the Naqab, a polling station was reportedly closed for a significant period of time, with at least 150 voters waiting outside at one point.

Missing Arabic ballots

Following reports from Haifa, Nazareth, I’billin, Eilabun, Shefa-‘Amr and Nof HaGalil that ballot slips with Arabic text had not been provided at a number of polling stations, Adalah demanded that the CEC ensure that such ballot slips are supplied immediately where they are missing.

Incitement against Arab voters

Throughout the day senior government officials have been inciting against Palestinian citizens of Israel exercising their right to vote as turnout in Arab towns rises. In a video filmed today at the entrance to Kafr Qassem, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has ministerial responsibility for the police, described turnout among Arab voters as “crazy” and told his supporters: “If you want this country to be Jewish and Zionist, you must go out and vote… Don’t let them win.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also warned in a video statement that turnout in Arab communities in the south was far higher than among Jewish voters, and claimed that “they are trying to steal the election from us” and that “the future of the Jewish state is at stake” according to media reports. These statements reiterate Netanyahu’s notorious 2015 Election Day warning that “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves,” once again portraying Palestinian citizens’ exercise of their right to vote as a threat that must be dealt with, rather than as part of a regular democratic process.

A cause for concern

Adalah stressed that these reports, which it has received from voters in a large number of Arab towns, raise serious concern that these cases are not isolated irregularities but a wider, recurring pattern that must be addressed. “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 wrote.