>> this is live from paris. this is our top story. voting is drawn to a close in israel where people have been casting their ballots in the fifth election in the space of less than years. blas, -- we will ask will this break the political deadlock and paved the way for netanyahu to return to the forefront of voters minds? ♪

tom: for the fifth time in less than four years, voters in israel headed to the polls for an election that is hoped will wind up breaking the political deadlock. running is benjamin netanyahu and the centrist yair lapid. turnout was at its highest level in over 20 years. hanging over netanyahu have been corruption charges that have left former allies reluctant to serve under him. he hasn't been able to form a viable majority in any of the previous elections. many israelis appear to be weary of the deadlock but some has -- have said it eroded their faith in the political process.

>> i don't think anything will change. it will be the same. >> i am doing my duty. i hope these elections will be the last ones for the next four years. tom: voters expressing frustration. pundits point to the fact that netanyahu's fortunes are somewhat tied to an ultranationalist politician, who has been convicted for his anti-arab rhetoric and promised to deport arab lawmakers. who is the man who some view as the kingmaker? let's find out. >> one vote for netanyahu and the full right-wing government so we can look after the soldiers and police officers. >> clear instructions that this

extreme right wing politician who has become the golden boy of supremacists. in the fifth election in four years he may be the key to helping netanyahu return to the premiership. born in jerusalem, his anti-palestinian rhetoric was inspired by a rabbi. he was charged with incitement of violence or hate speech. he is the head of a bloc that could become the third-place party. >> a young love me. if i become the minister of internal security it will be good. >> a lawyer by profession, he is a polarizing figure who wants to deport some of the arab

population and supports annexation of the west bank. the 46-year-old lives in one of the settlements in the occupied west bank and is no stranger to provocation. he recurrently appears -- frequently appears at scenes of tension, like this mosque in >> there is not really a palestinian people. historically we have always been living here. the palestinian people is a recent term a few decades old. there are arabs who can live in peace here and i have no problem with them. >> should netanyahu win, ben-gvir have -- has promised to weaken the judiciary and help the former prime minister evade a conviction. tom: let's go straight to jerusalem and talk to our

correspondent. what we know at this stage about how voting has gone today? >> we don't know much. i haven't even got all the figures, but i have seen that the israeli tv channels say the party has, the right wing bloc has won an -- narrow majority and retains its 30 seats in the parliament. there is a right wing majority. i have to say two things. exit polls are hard to read because they go until 8:00 p.m., it is 10:00 locally so there are two hours of voting that aren't counted in these polls. they have been wrong in the past . it is proportional representation so there is a tendency to be wrong, it is not one of the other you are trying to pick. all three israeli tv channels

have their own exit polls and they say the right has won a narrow majority. tom: thanks. let's cross to tel aviv and bring in our correspondent, a senior journalist with the hebrew daily newspaper. tell us what you make of these early results. it would appear netanyahu has secured 62 seats out of the necessary 100. does that sound right? tell us how significant that is >> it is very significant. he is gng to form a new government. let me say two things. it is not final. we have no idea what it will be later in this night. second, i didn't vote for the

right wing bloc, i have to admit. it is not going to be a catastrophe. we know that the stream -- the extreme right caucus -- >> we will come back when we have sorted out the audio. we will try to get that fixed. rob is here in the studio. thanks for standing by. if these exit polls are to be believed, i don't know what the accuracy of the opinion polls is. it has been suggested it is not particularly accurate and a lot to change but 62 seats sounds like netanyahu has been able to do it. >> it does. he is right to strike a note of

caution because many are taking part of -- in this election and it takes two or three to cross the threshold and get in. that changes the arithmetic. if the arab party gets in that may reduce the possibilities of that and yahoo! getting 62 ct is looking for. it is a complicated equation for all of the pieces. it is impossible to accurately predict how this will turn out but indications are that have -- this is how things are moving. tom: back to you. what is the reaction going to be in israel to the news that yahoo! come up -- netanyahu,

left after 12 years in office, will now be back at the front of israeli politics? >> by the looks of things, in that 62 seats, 15 seats according to this exit poll have gone to ben-gvir, the religious right-wing alliance. i know it will split into component parts soon but that is a large number that have gone to a very far right alliance. that is worrying. ben-gvir has been a galvanizing force in the election and a worrying force forhe people that are threatened by a man with a racist past t says he has changed but doesn't seem to have changed much. that is a huge thing. with a tight majority, the demands ben-gvir makes, which

includes the police minister, those demands have to be met. when you have a two seat majority you depend on everyone in that group that you have gathered around you, if you are the prime minister. it is called an extortion game. you know your price is high in those circumstances. tom: what do people make of the performance of lapid, the caretaker prime minister for six months? do people feel like he has achieved things, the things have gone well on his watch? is this a punisent for him? >> until i sse figures, i would have said they did think things went well on his watch. but the center left, i do have to keep saying this, e -- if these figures are right, 22or lapid, less than was projected.

the labour party and the party to the left of that barely scraped in. that whole lot of them didn't do so well. i think perhaps this is a story about security and finances because therhas been a feeling in the past five or six months that there has been an ongoing wave of attacks against israelis. in those circumstances, despite the strong israeli military response, there is always a tendency for voters to go right. that is what they have done, it seems. tom: can i ask you along those lines, how big of a part do you think intercommunal violence between israeli jews and israeli arabs has played a part? >> that was the beginning of the rise of ben-gvir. he was inciting, wherever he

was, there was violence. there might have been violence without him but he is an inciter. that shook israelis. that was not so long ago. it was after the gaza war, perhaps in part because of the gaza war. i think you were right to ask that question because that is the beginning of the feeling of a lack of security amongst israelis and that is the feeling ben-gvir has been speaking to. as we can see, he has reaped the benefits. 15 seats is huge. tom: we have a clip of some israeli arabs speaking about these elections and expressing concern before the elections happened. the turnout among israeli arabs will probably be on the low side. let's listen to what some had to say. >> honestly, iis a worrying

situation because arab citizens are boycotting the elections. it is also worrying because the far right will win this election and become a strong force. i'm worried for theesults. i hope arabs will succeed in securing if not 8, 12 seats. there is a chancthe far right will win 14 seats and possibly become part of the government. meanwhile, the arabs of israel are fing tense times and they might get four or eight seats. in either case, the situation will be difficult for arab citizens in israel. >> the solution for voters is to

go out and vote, especially young first-time voters. the situation is worrying but despite that and yahoo!'s efforts to suppress arab turnout, -- netanyahu's efforts to suppress arab turnout. tom: some opinions expressed by israeli arabs. let's go back to tel aviv. let's see if the audio problem has been resolved. let me start by asking what your reaction is so we can go back to where we were before, to the results as they stand at the moment. >> i am disappointed, but some people are probably not disappointed, quite satisfied with the result. but we have to wait. there might be a right-wing government, but it is not the end of the world.

between 2015-2019, there was not , they didn't do something which was unbelief or un-conceivable. i -- unbelievable or un-conceivable. if they form a government, it not going to be, israel is not going to be hungary. the israeli democracy is much stronger than what most people believe. unfortunately, many citizens didn't vote. even if in the last 10 years, the most huge change, because of so many investments in the arab sector, and i guess whatever wants to know, knows that there is a change. unfortunately they did not, and the turnout in the arab sector was quite low compared to the

jewish sector. i hope it will change. we have to see that anyone, according to the polls, there is something like 9.6. they can do better. they might reach the number of 15. maybe next election they will learn the lesson and the turnout will be much higher. for the benefit of arabs and the benefit of israel. tom: as an israeli citizen, i will pose the same question, how do you rate the performance of lapid and the caretaker government? internationally i think it is fair to say it was fairly well perceived. >> it was. i think it was in the limited time, it was quite a good prime minister in my opinion. but let's not forget israel is

facing problems, the conflict with iran and the conflict with the palestinians, which is unfortunately unsolved, not for the moment anyway. many times, in a moment of crisis people turn to the right and that is what happened because of the wave of terror we had in the last 3, 4 months. this is part of the problem. in sweden, three months prior to the election, when the right-wing government received a lot of power, there were riots in sweden and sweden is not israel. their problems are not like our problems. unfortunately whenever you have this kind of conflict, violence, problems, right-wing parties are doing much better. it happened in sweden and italy

and now it is happening in israel. as i told you, the israeli democracy is much stronger than the results of the election. democracy will not fail. tom: let's quickly cross back to jerusalem. we are running out of time. we haven't even mentioned the economy, which is usually at the forefront of people's minds when they cast a ballot. what were the main issues people had at the forefront of their mind? would you agree that security was the overriding issue in people's minds? were there other issues as well? >> i think security was the primary issue. you can see that by the bigger swing right and swing to the far right. i think the economy, for people i interviewed in the street, they mentioned the economy. they did say it was harder. it is a worldwide problem with lots of facets, including

russia's invasion of ukraine and the increase in the price of produce. those things affect israel but the public says i'm putting my hand in my pocket more. i think that was a factor. but i would say security was the primary factor and perhaps also, a great loyalty to netanyahu among a proportion of the public who don't evidently care about corruption trials or anything else. they really do believe he is an outstanding leader. >> there is corruption allegations that linger and continue to hang him but it appears they haven't damaged his chances this time around. thank you so much. we are out of time. thanks to our correspondence, thanks to all of you. up next, today we are turning our eye to denmark. elections underway and we will

look at the policies of the current government, dismantling certain neighborhoods. we will find out what that was about in the next report. ♪ >> this suburb north of copenhagen has a bad reputation. under danish law it is considered a parallel society. people who live here, like this young student. you grew up here and u experienced the government is enforcing rules, but only under part of the society. you are going to feel like there is no justice.

>> since 2018 danish authorities established criteria for parallel societies, called ghettos. among them are employment -- unemployment above 40%, a crime rate above the average and 50% or more of inhabitants must be non-western origin. if these criteria are met, the dismantling can start. two buildings were leveled here and two thirds of social housing units will be privatized. >> this is how the apartments will look when we are finished. >> the local housing authority is in charge of applying a new government policy. methods may seem aggressive but they are necessary, says the project manager. >> we had a gang war in copenhagen in 2017 and before that, terror shootings in 2015 which in some ways work -- set us back.

>> 250 families were forced to move. most were sent back to neighborhoods further away from downtown but a number of residents, like mike, are refusing to leave. >> i like it because people are super nice. that is always this feeling, that you can talk to everybody. >> they have lived here for eight years. along with other neighborhood residents, she is suing the government for what she considers to be a policy of racial discrimination. their arguments are backed by a united nations were or to. >> it is the first time in danish history that they u.n. -- the u.n. as part of a lawsuit against the government. it is discriminatory against people with low income. the determining criteria is the criteria about the non-western

origin and that is what we target in the lawsuit. >> two neighborhoods are currently considered parallel societies which must be dismantled. the local government here freed up plots of land for private housing. one family home costs 300,000 euros, much too expensive for the people who live in the neighborhood. >> it is mostly the danish people that live here. >> she grew up here but can barely recognize the place. she is a student and a danish citizen tunisian and palestinian roots. she said the so-called anti-ghetto law stigmatizes immigrant populations. >> my name is not danish. my last name is not danish. my address is very difficult for me to find a job. >> the tough policies in --

implemented by the government is supported by other parties. the mayor of copenhagen in charge of integration says it is a success. >> the crime is going down. what is reasonable is that more people are now having a normal job. the unemployment rate has fallen in that area. as we can see, it is going in the right direction. >> in denmark, the migration crisis of 2015 market turning point. that year the country welcomed more than 75,000 migrants, a big jump since 2010. the increase sharpened the debate on immigration and integration. this politician is running for office as a candidate of an antiracist party. he says the anti-ghetto law is

meant to send a message to all immigrants. >> for 20 years, different governments have tried to compete with having the most strict immigration policy. it is about to send a signal to refugees and immigrants not to come to denmark. step-by-step, all the policies have turned right and it has become what is today most of the policy. >> the government wants to get rid of all neighborhoods that are considered ghettos before 2030. some 20 neighborhoods are on the list of so-called parallel societies. ♪

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11/01/22 11/01/22 [captioning ma possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> not just affirmative action under consideration today. it is the trajectory of our future of democracy. amy: the supreme court said to an affirmative action and college admissions. we will hear excerpts from the oral arguments and get response. the new york has agreed to pay a total of $36 million to