Israeli court rejects application seeking to ban observers from coming to polls with guns

The Arab Minority Rights Legal Center in Israel (Adalah) and the Joint List, which represents Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, applied to the court after the Likud Party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right Religious Zionism Party announced that they would send approximately 2 thousand "observers" to the polls in areas where Palestinians live.

According to the statement made by Adalah, the application requested that ballot box officials and party observers be prohibited from carrying firearms at the polling stations.

Warning that armed observers could put pressure on Palestinian voters and lead to violence, Adalah emphasized that sending armed civilian observers to the polls in areas populated by Palestinians poses a serious risk.

The Supreme Court rejected the application, agreeing with the police's assessment that the presence of armed observers at the polling stations was not a threat.

Reacting to the court's decision, Adalah said, "The court's decision actually allows those who participated in this provocation of Netanyahu and Smotrich to appear at the polling stations in Arab settlements as armed militias." he said.

After a four-year period in which the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched attacks in the region, voters in Israel will go to the polls tomorrow for the first timely general election since 1988.