With just a week to go until elections, the parties' campaign teams will be sharpening their verbal barbs in preparation for the final battle for votes.

But an organization promoting unity in Israel has produced a novel video encouraging MKs to take a more positive approach: praise their opponents, rather than attack them.

Gesher (literally "Bridge" in Hebrew), an NGO working to bridge the gap between religious and secular Israelis, produced the video as part of a wider campaign promoting its new "10 Commandments for Politicians."

Among other things, the commandments include "Respect other candidates"; Display tolerance and team spirit"; "Don't be aggressive"; and "Argue the issue not the person" - attributes often lacking in Israel's charged political arena.

Gesher's "10 Commandments for Politicians" Credit: Gesher

Among the MKs appearing on the video are party heads Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) and Eli Yishai (Yachad - Ha'am Itanu).

Other senior MKs include Jewish Home's Uri Ariel and Ayelet Shaked - the party's top MKs after Bennett - as well as Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) and Shelly Yechimovich (Labor).

In the video, politicians from nearly all the parties praise a member of another faction, hailing his or her most commendable attribute.

Some of the choices might seem surprising - although that is of course the whole point.

Yair Lapid, for example, offers praise for "good-hearted" MK Itzik Cohen of the haredi Shas party - with whom the secularist Yesh Atid has been at loggerheads since its founding - praising him for knowing how to cross party lines, accept the opinions of others and cooperate with other MKs on legislative issues.

Ayelet Shaked chose to praise Labor's Shelly Yechimovich. Despite the ideological gulf between the two parties on almost every issue, Shaked praised Yechimovitch as a woman of conviction: "I know that with you, it isn't (a case of saying) one thing with your mouth and (thinking) something else in your heart."

It's part of a wider push for unity which began this year with the launch of the NGO's Jerusalem Unity Prize in memory of three murdered teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha'ar.

"This is an initiative that proves that unity is something that can and must exist in all aspects of society and our daily lives," said Jerusalem Unity Prize Director Anat Schwarz Weil. 

"Even when we are seemingly living as opponents or competitors we can always find common ground for discussion and mutual respect. And this is what The Jerusalem Unity Prize in Memory of Eyal, Gil-Ad and Naftali is all about.