A gathering of Meretz supporters turned violent Sunday, when a party activist showed up and began haranguing party chairwoman Tamar Zandberg over the party’s use of ‘spam’ messages.
While Zandberg was attempting to address the gathering, Aeyal Gross, a Meretz faction activist, interrupted Zandberg, condemning the party for inundating supporters with telephone message, calling the stream of SMS messages from the party to its supporters ahead of Tuesday’s election “spamming”.
Gross read through a list of the messages he had received recently to protest the party’s use of SMS messaging to boost turnout.
Ahead of Tuesday’s elections, numerous political parties have taken advantage of not only social media networks but also cell phone lists, bombarding cell phone users with messages intended to boost turnout, or discourage voters from supporting rival factions.
During the incident, a second Meretz activist confronted Gross, snatching the cell phone Gross had been reading from. The confrontation quickly escalated, leading to fisticuffs.