An Israeli official warns of foreign campaigns aimed at undermining public confidence in the elections

Tel Aviv - Ofoq News - The Acting Director General of the Israeli Central Elections Commission, Dean Livneh, warned of influence campaigns led by foreign countries with the aim of undermining the Israeli public’s confidence in the elections, indicating that the committee and the security services are preparing for various scenarios that may affect the conduct of the election day scheduled for October 27th.

Livneh said, this Friday morning, in an interview with the Israeli Kan radio, that the committee is preparing for various possibilities, starting from more dangerous and less likely scenarios, such as an attack on Israel, to more likely possibilities, such as chaos in some polling stations.

He added, "This electoral system is perhaps the most extreme in all respects," noting that the number of petitions submitted to the head of the committee is already equivalent to the number of petitions registered during five electoral cycles, although preparations have not yet finished.

He explained that the Israeli police will be deployed throughout the country, along with reinforcements including thousands of security personnel, with the aim of ensuring that Election Day proceeds normally, stressing that there are currently no tangible indicators of a security threat on Election Day.

Livneh warned of the presence of several campaigns led by foreign countries with the aim of undermining the Israeli public's confidence in the elections, explaining that the committee will activate a special operations room during polling day to confront influence campaigns, in coordination with major digital platforms, including Meta, Microsoft, and Google.

He said that campaigns aimed at harming the proper conduct of the electoral process will be removed immediately, noting that the committee is aware of the sensitivity of the balance between freedom of expression and censorship.

He added: “We do not want to impose censorship on legitimate expression,” pointing out that the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) has powerful tools to examine these campaigns, and that any campaign of this kind whose existence is proven will be removed immediately.