PM crony admits targeting Arabs with camera bill probably wasn’t such a good idea

Likud MK Miki Zohar, a staunch ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acknowledges that the controversial camera bill that his party aggressively pushed in recent weeks ended up hurting it on election day.

“It woke up the Arab sector that in turn came out to the polls, while it also went on to lull right-wing voters into complacency and many of them remained at home,” Zohar tells the Walla news site.

Netanyahu’s Likud party advocated for legislation opposed by the attorney general that would have allowed party operatives to film inside polling stations. It based the necessity for the bill on the unproven claim of rampant voter fraud in the Arab sector.

In the middle of election day, the party leaked to Channel 13 that it had installed “facial recognition” cameras outside Arab polling stations in what many analysts quickly concluded was an attempt to intimidate Arab voters.

The Joint List, according to unofficial results tallied after over 90% of the vote was counted, went on to receive 12 seats.