The Central Elections Committee Chairman, Justice Noam Sohlberg, on Wednesday ordered Beyachad party chairman Naftali Bennett to remove footage showing soldiers engaged in operational activity and an IDF artillery piece from an election campaign video.
The decision came following a Likud petition arguing that the footage constituted the use of public assets and the IDF for election propaganda, in violation of the law.
In the video, Bennett speaks, among other things, about soldiers who have been fighting for many months, contrasting them with haredim who evade military service. While he discusses the soldiers, the video footage addressed in the ruling is shown in the background.
Justice Sohlberg ruled that the footage contains IDF assets and creates a connection between the IDF and its activities and the messages presented in the video. He further ruled that the footage does not constitute a marginal part of the video and that the use of public assets in connection with election propaganda had therefore been established.
However, the Central Elections Committee chairman ruled that there was no need to remove the entire video. Since the use of IDF assets was limited to specific portions and was intended as a visual illustration, Sohlberg ordered Bennett to remove only those segments showing the soldiers and the IDF artillery piece.