Itzik Shmuli
Itzik ShmuliPhoto by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90

The Likud today demanded the Attorney General open an investigation into MK Itzik Shmuli's ties with the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

In a complaint submitted to AG Avichai Mandelblit, it was stated that "a few days ago primaries were held in the Labor Party, in which the Labor Party was elected to the Knesset. MK Itzik Shmuli finished first in the race. Immediately after the elections, journalist Raviv Drucker on Channel 13 published an amazing fact. According to him, a deal was formed between MK Shmuli and Yediot Ahronot according to which MK Shmuli promotes the newspaper's affairs, while the newspaper promotes MK Shmuli's interests."

Drucker's comments were quoted and the letter claimed his remarks "caused a great uproar because they reveal the hypocrisy and the selective enforcement in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's investigations."

The Likud also mentions "claims made by investigative journalist Tomer Avital, who described in Seventh Eye in 2017 how Shmuli acted for Yediot Ahronot: "He worked to permit publication of smoking products in the press, objected to a law that would regulate hidden advertising, and acted against rival Israel Hayom on several levels," according to Avital. "In exchange for this activity, Shmuli received unprecedented serial positive coverage from Yediot Ahronot, what Noni Moses calls 'pampering' - supportive pictures and publications. Unnecessary bills that won headlines that MKs, especially in the opposition, could only fantasize about."

Attorney Michael Dvorin asked the Attorney General on behalf of the Likud party that "in the name of the principle of equality before the law, an immediate criminal investigation should be opened against both MK Itzik Shmuli and Yediot Ahronot, which will examine in depth the claims of Mr. Drucker and Mr. Avital about the actual deal that was forged between the parties," he said.

"In the name of equal rights to vote and to be elected, it is requested that a notice of the opening of an investigation be published as soon as possible and that the public have all the information before the elections on the candidate who won the primaries in the second largest party in the State of Israel today, just as there are those who want to do the same about the head of the Likud party. With all due respect, there is no room for selective enforcement in the State of Israel. As the late Supreme Court Justice Chaim Cohen stated in the past, 'selective enforcement is evil'," Attorney Dvorin sums up his letter to Mandelblit.