Elections Committee Chairman Justice Mishael Heshin was forced to agree yesterday that he is, in fact, authorized to rule on the legitimacy of election ad contents. The Yesha Council and the B'Tzedek legal organization now expect Heshin to rule on their petition against election ads that, they say, incite against the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Heshin had said last week that he had no authority to rule on questions of this nature - only a short while after he had disallowed an infomercial by Herut featuring a satiric version of Israel's national anthem. The song, sung in Arabic on the backdrop of an Israeli flag merging with the PLO colors, emphasizes the desire of Arabs to take over Israeli cities such as Jaffa, Lod, and Acre. Heshin said that the promo profaned both the national flag, which is a crime, as well as the national anthem, and that it contained incitement.
Atty. Elad Rosenblatt, representing B'Tzedek and the Yesha Council at the Supreme Court hearing today, asked Heshin, "You insisted that you had the authority [in the case of the Herut ad] to disqualify ads with incitement. Why, then, when the residents of Yesha turn to you [in a similar case], do you say you have no authority?" Heshin came to accept this claim during the course of the hearing, and Atty. Rosenblatt said that he sees the Yesha petition as having been accepted.
Heshin had said last week that he had no authority to rule on questions of this nature - only a short while after he had disallowed an infomercial by Herut featuring a satiric version of Israel's national anthem. The song, sung in Arabic on the backdrop of an Israeli flag merging with the PLO colors, emphasizes the desire of Arabs to take over Israeli cities such as Jaffa, Lod, and Acre. Heshin said that the promo profaned both the national flag, which is a crime, as well as the national anthem, and that it contained incitement.
Atty. Elad Rosenblatt, representing B'Tzedek and the Yesha Council at the Supreme Court hearing today, asked Heshin, "You insisted that you had the authority [in the case of the Herut ad] to disqualify ads with incitement. Why, then, when the residents of Yesha turn to you [in a similar case], do you say you have no authority?" Heshin came to accept this claim during the course of the hearing, and Atty. Rosenblatt said that he sees the Yesha petition as having been accepted.