Election Committee Orders Removal of Likud Billboard Featuring Eisenkot
Translated & summarized from Haaretz by baba
The Election Committee chairman ordered the removal of Likud billboards featuring Gadi Eisenkot alongside other party leaders, citing potential voter confusion. Despite the order, one billboard remained in Bat Yam, leading to a ruling that local authorities must remove it. The signs included Arabic text, which the chairman deemed insufficient for identifying the responsible party. Separately, the Otzma Yehudit party denied a journalist access to an event.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Election Committee chairman ordered Likud billboards featuring Gadi Eisenkot removed.
- A Likud billboard in Bat Yam remained displayed despite the removal order.
- Chairman Noam Sohlberg cited potential voter confusion as the reason for the order.
- The signs included Arabic text deemed insufficient for identifying the advertiser.
- Bat Yam Mayor Tzviika Brot also serves as the Likud's election campaign manager.
- Otzma Yehudit reportedly denied a journalist access to a campaign event.
Despite an order from the Election Committee chairman to remove billboards placed by the Likud party, one remains displayed on a main road in Bat Yam. The billboard features Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, alongside leaders of other lists, including Mansour Abbas of Ra'am. Election Committee Chairman Noam Sohlberg ruled that the billboard could be misleading, suggesting a political connection between Eisenkot's party and others it is not affiliated with. Sohlberg had ordered the removal of all such signs nationwide by Friday evening, rejecting the Likud's proposal to remove them on Sunday. He stated that a Sunday removal would still allow many to see the misleading signs over the weekend. As the directive was not followed, Sohlberg ruled on Saturday that local authorities must remove the signs within their jurisdictions and that the Likud must "continue to act on the matter."
The signs, designed to resemble Yisrael Beiteinu's campaign materials, include Arabic text stating they are from the Likud party. Sohlberg determined that the Arabic inscription did not adequately identify the party responsible for the signs, particularly in areas where Arabic is not widely spoken. Tzviika Brot, the mayor of Bat Yam, is also the campaign manager for the Likud's Knesset elections. Meanwhile, the Otzma Yehudit party reportedly denied entry to a Haaretz journalist at an election event in Bat Yam, citing a need for prior approval, though another journalist was admitted without advance coordination. Neither the Bat Yam municipality nor the Likud party provided a response.
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