Large Bedouin Arab voter turnout in Rahat amid anger over Ben Gvir

Bedouin Arabs, including a reportedly unprecedented number of women, arrive at a polling booth in the southern town of Rahat telling The Times of Israel that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has united them and galvanized them like never before.

They refer to a massive uptick in housing demolitions under the current government, to a lack of effort to deal with gun violence in the Arab sector and to cancellations of funds and agreements made during the government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, which for the first time included an Arab party — Ra’am, under Mansour Abbas.

The Times of Israel is told that half the town had already voted, in contrast to previous elections when voting traffic only picked up in the evening.

During the March 2015 election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu famously warned that Arab voters were moving in massive numbers to the polling stations and that the left was bringing them in buses.

Citing that quote, many Rahat voters said that today, Arab Israelis are indeed going to vote in droves.