Election Committee Head Orders Netanyahu to Remove Campaign Videos, Fines Him

The Chairman of the Elections Committee, Judge Noam Sohlberg, ruled on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must remove campaign videos from his private accounts and pay 29,000 shekels in personal expenses to the petitioners. The ruling came after Sohlberg considered six petitions, five of which were accepted in full or in part. All petitions concerned Netanyahu's use of official speeches and IDF materials for election campaigning on his personal accounts.

Sohlberg determined that five of the six petitions were justified, stating that the content constituted election propaganda. In one instance, a video showed Netanyahu visiting an IDF post in southern Lebanon. Sohlberg found that the video primarily highlighted the achievements of the government and its leader, while segments intended to "boost morale and honor soldiers" were edited out. "This is, of course, election propaganda," Sohlberg wrote.

This ruling follows a similar incident in August when the Elections Committee ordered the Shas party to remove a campaign video. That video featured a soldier returning home for Shabbat, with the party's chairman, Aryeh Deri, claiming that over 30,000 soldiers and career personnel had voted for Shas in the previous election.

In related news, President Isaac Herzog met with representatives from TikTok, Meta, Google, and Microsoft to discuss ways to deepen election integrity.