Israeli citizens are driving Bedouin voters to the polls in droves
Bedouin woman from the unrecognized village of Al-Araqib which Israel has demolished over 100 times in front of an Israeli police van
Oren Zvi reports in +972:
Between Netanyahu’s rabid anti-Arab incitement and credible rumors of Election Day violence, concerns about voter suppression in Israel are at an all-time high. Several civil society organizations are taking pre-emptive action.
Dozens of private citizens have volunteered to drive Bedouin residents of remote, so-called unrecognized Bedouin villages to the polling stations to vote during Tuesday’s election. The grassroots initiative sprang up in response to a ruling handed down on Sunday by the Central Elections Committee, which ordered Zazim, an Israeli grassroots organizing group akin to MoveOn, to halt its plan to bus Bedouin voters to polling stations. Likud party lawyers objected to the plan, arguing to the Committee that it was a partisan attempt to sway the election results. The volunteer drivers said that they are not connected to any organization.
Approximately 50,000 eligible voters live in remote, unrecognized Bedouin villages that have no access to public transportation. Many of them live miles from the nearest polling station.