Israeli Election Spam: Parties' Right to Harass Voters Debated

As Israel approaches the October 27th Knesset elections, citizens are inundated with political advertising via SMS, voice messages, and calls. However, Israeli law largely exempts political parties from the anti-spam regulations that govern commercial entities. Lawyer Amir Zolt explains that election campaigning is specifically excluded from the "spam law" under Section 30a of the Communications Law, a stance upheld by courts.

While direct lawsuits solely for receiving political SMS are generally not permissible, certain nuances exist. Calls merely asking about voting intentions might not fall under the exemption, though identifying the caller can be difficult. The law does penalize using communication means to harm, intimidate, or harass, but Zolt believes prosecutors are unlikely to apply this to politically protected messages unless the harassment is extreme, such as late-night calls or frequent, alarming messages.

Lawyers Ronen Katzav and Amit Zilberg confirm the consistent legal precedent: political campaign messages, including texts and emails, are not restricted by spam laws. Courts have rejected claims against parties for sending election SMS without consent, viewing calls to vote as distinct from commercial advertising. This interpretation has been solidified by the Supreme Court.

Despite the spam law exemption, parties are required by the Election Law to clearly identify the person responsible for campaign advertisements, including digital ones. The Central Elections Committee can compel communication providers to reveal the identity of senders of anonymous materials and has fined parties for distributing such content.

While laws do not explicitly grant a right to be removed from a party's mailing list, repeated unwanted messages after a request to stop could potentially form grounds for a lawsuit under other legal provisions, such as "other harassment" within the Privacy Protection Law, especially if personal data is used for targeted messaging. In one case, a party settled with a plaintiff for 3,500 shekels after continuing to send messages post-request.

Complaints can be lodged with the Central Elections Committee for anonymous messages. If personal data is misused, such as revealing sensitive information like medical history, grounds for civil or criminal proceedings and complaints to the Privacy Protection Authority may exist. Citizens can also report violations of election law to the chairman of the Central Elections Committee. Evidence like screenshots of messages and records of communication requests should be preserved for any potential legal action.