Israel Police reportedly raided two Beit Shemesh apartments today as
voting in the city’s hotly contested municipal elections was taking
place nearby, reportedly arresting eight people thought to be haredim
and confiscating more than two hundred fake national identification
cards apparently meant to allow people to vote more than once, ringers
to vote for haredim who are out of the country, and people who are not
residents of Beit Shemesh to vote in the city’s local elections today.
8 Men, Apparently All Haredim, Arrested In Massive Beit Shemesh Voter Fraud Scheme
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Israel Police reportedly raided two Beit Shemesh apartments today as voting in the city’s hotly contested municipal elections was taking place nearby, reportedly arresting eight people thought to be haredim and confiscating more than two hundred fake national identification cards apparently meant to allow people to vote more than once, ringers to vote for haredim who are out of the country, and people who are not residents of Beit Shemesh to vote in the city’s local elections today.
“We are checking these ID cards. Some of the people [named on the cards] are abroad so we think they [those arrested] might have used the ID cards or [that] they intended to use them but we don’t know yet. We have to check it thoroughly,” Jerusalem District police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby told the Jerusalem Post.
Found with the IDs was a table full of various black hats.
During a Knesset hearing last week, Interior Ministry officials said the ministry had uncovered attempts by non-Beit Shemesh residents to register to vote in Beit Shemesh, but claimed it had successfully blocked them all from doing so.
But the campaign of the Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi party’s mayoral candidate, Eli Cohen, alleges that haredi attempts at voter fraud went even further than fake IDs.
Cohen’s campaign claims a Sefardi haredi Shas Party representative threw out ballots with Cohen’s name to stop people from voting for him. (In Israel, people vote by choosing a party or, in some cases, individual, ballot that is pre-marked and inserting it in a ballot box.)
There was also at least one report made before the 8 arrests of a haredi man trying to vote with a fake ID.
Shas also posted some questionably legal campaign posters last night, angering Cohen’s campaign.
“[Sefardi haredi Mayor Moshe] Abutbul [of the Shas Party] continues to do what he wants as if there were no judgement and no judge,” Ariel Nissim, a lawyer for the Cohen campaign, claimed. Abutbul received two fines and a censure from a High Court justice earlier this week for repeatedly violating election law.
Abutbul’s campaign is accused of a series of dirty tricks, including fabricating the endorsement of conservative Zionist Orthodox rabbis and trying to scare Zionist Orthodox voters – especially anglos – into voting for him by distributing material, including large posters and banners, that claim that truly religious people have to vote for the haredi candidate.
“[Truly religious Jews] shouldn't steal ballots, cause Chilul HaShem [desecration of God’s name], ‘borrow or rent’ Tedudat Zehuts [national ID cards], manufacture rabbinic statements, throw rocks at others, call Jews ‘Nazis’, [or] lie to gedolim [leading rabbis,]” Rabbi Avroham Levanthal, a candidate for city council with the liberal haredi Tov party – which endorsed Cohen over Abutbol – reportedly wrote on his Facebook page today.
Meanwhile, more extremist haredim boycotted the election and encouraged others not to vote.
In several Beit Shemesh neighborhoods, haredim also reported posted posters that illegally ordered haredim to use separate voting hours for men and women.
And several dozen haredim from the Atra Kadisha graves protection-extortion organization renewed their demonstrations at a local haredi-owned construction site, again asserting that there are ancient Jewish graves located there – although no evidence supporting that claim has been found by anyone, including haredi rabbis, who has investigated.
“Hareidi politicians have taken a beautiful religion and have dragged it through the mud - all for political gain and power. They have attempted to make this election about religion and have succeeded. It is Judaism vs. something completely foreign to Judaism,” an exasperated Beit Shemesh resident and Member of Knesset Dov Lipman reportedly told the Post.