{"id":838327,"date":"2026-10-27T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=838327"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:06:23","slug":"netanyahu-issues-emergency-appeals-to-supporters-saying-arab-turnout-is-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/838327","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu issues “emergency” appeals to supporters, saying Arab turnout is high"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Benjamin<\/figure>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara vote at a polling station in Jerusalem on October 27, 2026. Photo: Prime Minister's Office of Israel via X<\/em><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a string of "emergency" appeals to supporters on Tuesday, saying high Arab turnout could cost him power, as turnout hit a record 55.7 percent by 4 PM Israel time.<\/p>\n

By 4 PM Israel time, 10 AM ET, 55.7 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots, 4,085,075 people, the Central Elections Committee said. That was the highest turnout at that hour since figures were first recorded in 1973, up from 47.5 percent at the same hour in 2022, Ynet and The Times of Israel reported. Turnout had been 44.9 percent at 2 PM and 31.5 percent at noon. About 7.33 million Israelis are eligible to vote for the 120-seat Knesset, and polls close at 10 PM Israel time, which is 4 PM ET. The committee said stations would stay open past 10 PM for anyone still in line.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu voted in Jerusalem with his wife Sara, his office said on X at about 1 PM Israel time, quoting him as saying "Go out and vote!" His own account struck a more urgent note. "Emergency! The strongholds of the left are pouncing on the polling stations, and the strongholds of the right are indifferent," he wrote at about 12:15 PM Israel time. Forty minutes later he posted what he called "an emergency call," saying that "the future of our Jewish state is at stake" and that turnout in the Arab sector was higher than usual while right-wing turnout was low.<\/p>\n

At 1:30 PM Israel time he wrote that buses were leaving for the polls and that huge lines were being reported in Arab towns. "If we do not go out now to vote, we will find ourselves with a government of the Arab parties," he wrote. Later he shared images he said came from the Bedouin city of Rahat, and at about 2:50 PM he posted: "We are in a war for our home. Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood are raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections." The post gave no evidence for that claim, and the Central Elections Committee's acting director general, Dean Livne, said the Negev case was an isolated incident, The Jerusalem Post reported.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Netanyahu wrote that three suspects had been arrested in the Negev "with envelopes of money and ballot papers of Mansour Abbas," the leader of the Arab party Ra'am, and demanded that law enforcement investigate. Police said searches of homes in Segev Shalom and Ar'ara in the Negev found envelopes holding tens of thousands of shekels, allegedly meant to be handed out in exchange for votes for Ra'am, and that the three suspects would face court hearings, Ynet reported. Ra'am rejected the allegation, saying its activists were arrested at their homes hours before polls opened and calling the arrests "baseless" and meant to suppress Arab turnout, The Jerusalem Post reported. Ra'am also filed a complaint with the Central Elections Committee, i24NEWS reported. The police statement did not allege that the party's leadership was involved, Ynet reported.<\/p>\n

Eisenkot's Yashar party answered in a statement. "Netanyahu is panicking and has begun making up stories and claiming that the election is being stolen. This is no accident. He is already laying the groundwork to challenge the election results," the party said, The Times of Israel reported. The Central Elections Committee said there was no evidence of systematic tampering with ballot slips and that individual reports were being handled immediately, the paper reported.<\/p>\n

Others on X read the day differently. Hagar Shezaf, writing after a tour of polling stations in Jaffa, said she heard two people within a quarter of an hour trying to persuade a neighbor to go and vote, once in Hebrew and once in Arabic, and one of them offered him a ride. "It is hard to measure, but the feeling is that the street here is much more awake than in previous elections," she wrote.<\/p>\n

On the right, Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism party used the high turnout to warn voters away from small parties. At 60 percent turnout, he wrote, the threshold to enter the Knesset is about 143,000 votes, and at 80 percent it is about 190,000. "Voting for parties that do not pass is a vote for the left and for a government with Mansour Abbas," he wrote.<\/p>\n

Some voters said Iran was on their minds. Shemuel Meir, who voted in north Tel Aviv, said his vote had one aim, "to prevent the unnecessary preventive war against Iran" that he said was being planned in Netanyahu's head. Another Tel Aviv voter, posting as @seaIndian, wrote that at a polling station in a Likud and Shas stronghold in the south of the city he helped elderly voters find their polling booths even though he knew they would vote for the other side. "That is how it is in a democracy," he wrote.<\/p>\n

Opinion polls before the vote suggested that neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the opposition led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot was sure of the 61 seats needed for a majority, leaving smaller parties, including Ra'am, as possible kingmakers.<\/p>\n

Pollsters had expected higher Arab turnout than in 2022, Reuters reported on October 19, with the Stat-Net Research Institute projecting 63 percent, up from 56 percent.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n