Politics1 min read

Israeli press review: Netanyahu moved to undermine Palestinian vote on election day

By · Via Middle East Eye · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Netanyahu's election-day push relied on phone calls, text messages, videos, and nearly half of his official posts to delegitimise Palestinian voters. In the aftermath of the vote, U.S. President Donald Trump communicated his preference for a coalition featuring Likud and Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party to pursue regional agreements, specifically requesting the exclusion of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Domestically, roughly 400 Israeli artists and writers are urging the Zionist Change bloc to form an alliance with the Joint List and Ra'am following their notable gains.

Key points

  • U.S. President Donald Trump is actively advocating for a broad unity government between L…: U.S. President Donald Trump is actively advocating for a broad unity government between Likud and Yashar to advance regional Arab accords.
  • Significant electoral gains by the Joint List and Ra'am have positioned Palestinian-led f…: Significant electoral gains by the Joint List and Ra'am have positioned Palestinian-led factions as decisive players in potential anti-Netanyahu coalitions.
  • Hundreds of cultural figures are pressuring the Israeli opposition to unite Jewish and Ar…: Hundreds of cultural figures are pressuring the Israeli opposition to unite Jewish and Arab factions to establish an equal political reality.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Netanyahu sought to delegitimise Palestinian voters

On Israel's election day on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published dozens of posts aimed at delegitimising the Palestinian vote, laying the groundwork to discredit the election results, a Haaretz investigation found on Thursday.

According to Haaretz, which monitored Netanyahu’s social media activity, almost every second post by the Israeli prime minister on election day focused on the Palestinian vote, in an apparent attempt to undermine Palestinian voters, who turned out in record numbers.

Out of 146 posts on all of Netanyahu's social media accounts during the 15 hours when polling stations were open, he devoted 72 to attacking Palestinian turnout.

Haaretz noted that Netanyahu’s staggering number of posts targeting the Palestinian vote was only part of a broader campaign on election day that extended well beyond his own social media accounts.

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In addition, attempts to mobilise Netanyahu's Likud voters included phone calls and text messages to voters, while Netanyahu and…

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