Without even examining the exact vote tallies, it would be safe to call Israel’s Knesset elections on Tuesday a disaster. Initially depressed Arab voter turnout, a failed opposition campaign devoid of any meaningful policy promises, and typical right-wing Election Day shenanigans all point to the continuation of an unacceptable status quo. Nobody with any power is interested in challenging the occupation, and the Israeli electorate appears to be more right-wing than ever. Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who as of now looks set for a record fifth term as prime minister, faces multiple imminent indictments for corruption and fraud. Although it is unlikely he’ll be able to hang on for long, Netanyahu will probably be forced to placate his right flank by initiating the formal annexation of Palestinian lands to Israel, as he promised in the final days of the campaign. Any of his potential replacements will at the very least continue this policy and possibly expand it.

Although some insist that the elections are themselves proof of Israel’s fundamentally democratic nature (in spite of the millions of Palestinians under occupation who were not able to cast a vote for the government that exercises total authority over their lives), from the moment polls opened on Tuesday morning, the sickness of Israel’s political situation was on full display. Likud Party activists were caught using more than a thousand body cameras to surveil polling stations used by Arab citizens of Israel, a transparent attempt both to intimidate Arab voters and to use fear to motivate right-wing voters. Likud quickly copped to the scheme, and the matter has already been referred to police by Israel’s elections board. The head of the PR firm that organized the hidden cameras, however, bragged about the intimidation tactic, writing on Facebook that “we managed to lower the voter turnout to under 50 percent, the lowest in recent years!”

This kind of dirty trick is nothing new. During the last set of elections, in 2015, Netanyahu infamously released a video in which he claimed that Arab voters were “heading to the polling stations in droves.” The Israeli electorate of the last decade, as Netanyahu knows better than anyone, is often moved by such displays of strategic racism.