Ultra-Orthodox extremists sprayed polling stations at a school in Ramat Beit Shemesh with a noxious liquid in order to prevent the city's residents from voting on Tuesday morning, Hebrew media reported.
Members of the Electoral Commission at a school in the city arrived in the classrooms and noticed a pungent smell.
Allegedly, between Monday night and Tuesday morning, ultra-Orthodox extremists who oppose the elections entered the school building where the polling stations were set up and apparently spilled the substance with a pungent smell in the area, according to multiple reports.
Members of the Electoral Commission moved the polling stations to the trailers on the school campus, according to Ynet.
The place was reportedly cleaned afterward, Walla reported.
Reaction to the incident
"When the secretaries came in the morning to open the four polling stations at the school in Beit Shemesh, there was a terrible smell in the rooms," Orly Ades, head of the Central Election Committee, told Ynet. "But these are the kind of really small things that we know how to overcome. We found replacement trailers and immediately transferred the polling stations there. Let's hope there will be no more unusual events."
"These are the kind of really small things that we know how to overcome. We found replacement trailers and immediately transferred the polling stations there. Let's hope there will be no more unusual events."
Orly Ades
Police opened an investigation into the incident, as it is suspected that these are ultra-Orthodox who do not recognize the State of Israel and do not participate in the elections, and are therefore trying to prevent people from exercising their democratic rights, Ynet reported.