A group of Palestinian Arab rappers threatened legal action Sunday against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party for using their song in an ISIS-themed campaign ad for Israel's March election.
The contentious new ad, which Likud released on Saturday, implied that a vote for the Left would benefit the jihadist Islamic State terror group, also know as ISIS.
The ad features actors portraying jihadists driving in a white pick-up with two standing in the rear carrying the black flag of ISIS, the brutal Sunni Muslim group that has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
The truck pulls up next to a car driven by an Israeli and a "jihadist" asks: "Which way to Jerusalem brother?"
"Take the left," the driver answers and the pick-up drives off, one of the actors firing an automatic rifle into the air.
Two slogans appear on the screen: "The Left will give in to terrorism" and "It's us or them, there is only Likud, only Netanyahu."
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Right-wing leaderrs regularly warn that plans by left-wing parties to give up most or all of the mountainous Judea-Samaria region in the center of Israel to create a 23rd Arab state will eventually pave the way for a takeover by Islamists like Hamas or even ISIS.
ISIS currently has a presence in Iraq along the border with Jordan, whose western borders run along the entire Judea and Samaria region. The jihadist group has significant support within the Hashemite Kingdom.
The clip's background music is a catchy hip-hop song by Amman-based Palestinian group Torabyeh called "Ghorbah", which can be translated from Arabic as "exile".
Torabyeh denounced the unauthorised artistic collaboration with the Israeli party's "electoral propoganda attacking the so-called Zionist 'left-wing'."
"We strongly condemn and reject this ruthless infringement of intellectual property rights and the distortion of the reputation of Torabyeh," the group said on their Facebook page.
They said use of their song in this context "implicates the Torabyeh group by containing serious accusations of terrorism and association with IS which is consequently putting the group's members lives at risk".
Torabyeh stressed it rejected "all forms of cooperation with the Zionist enemy", and pledged to "take all necessary legal action against those responsible". There was no immediate comment from Likud to Torabyeh's threat.
The ad also drew fire from the left-wing joint list opposing Likud, made up of the Labor and Hatnua parties, which accused Netanyahu of "colossal" security failures.
"He freed terrorists with blood on their hands and strengthened Hamas, and during his tenure Iran became a state that has reached the nuclear threshold," it said in a statement.
Security will be a key issue in Israel's March 17 general election, which was called early after the collapse of Netanyahu's ruling coalition.
Recent polls have shown a tight race between Likud and Labor-Hatnua, but also indicate that many voters remain undecided. In recent weeks, however, Likud appears to have gained the edge from its left-wing rivals.
AFP contributed to this report.