Israeli Election Chief Orders Netanyahu to Pull Campaign Videos
Justice Noam Sohlberg found that the videos amounted to election campaigning, upholding five of the six petitions filed against Netanyahu over his recent social media posts, the newspaper said.
One of the clips showed Netanyahu touring an Israeli military outpost in southern Lebanon. Sohlberg determined that the video chiefly showcased the achievements of the government and the prime minister, noting that footage centered on lifting morale and honoring soldiers had been cut during editing.
"This is, of course, a campaign ad," Sohlberg wrote in his decision.
Sohlberg directed Netanyahu to delete the posts from his social media accounts and to pay the petitioners 29,000 shekels ($9,500) in legal fees.
The decision echoes a ruling issued last week against National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over a social media video in which he confronted Palestinian prisoner Hassan Salameh. The petition against that clip argued that filming inside a prison breached the ban on using public property for election propaganda.
Sohlberg sided with the petitioners, concluding that Ben-Gvir had boasted about his actions, laid out his future political plans and delivered a personal message that he alone served as a deterrent.
"The purpose of the video is election propaganda, not deterrence," Sohlberg ruled.
Israel votes in general elections on Oct. 27. Coalition parties led by Netanyahu's Likud are facing off against opposition parties, and recent polls point to a tight race in which neither camp secures the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority.
Netanyahu has headed the current government since late December 2022, an administration that has been described as the most right-wing in Israel's history. He faces corruption charges, and the International Criminal Court
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