Election Committee Orders Naftali Bennett to Remove IDF Footage from Campaign Video

The Central Elections Committee chairman, Judge Noam Solberg, ruled on Wednesday that Naftali Bennett, leader of the "Together" party, must remove video clips showing IDF soldiers and artillery from a campaign advertisement. The decision followed a complaint by the Likud party, which accused Bennett of illegally using public assets and IDF imagery in election propaganda.

In the contested video, Bennett discusses soldiers fighting for extended periods while criticizing ultra-Orthodox individuals who avoid military service. The background footage includes operational scenes of soldiers and an IDF artillery piece. Judge Solberg determined that these clips constitute IDF property and improperly link the military's operational activities to political messaging.

The ruling emphasized that the footage was not incidental but central to illustrating Bennett's message. Although the committee found that public assets were used in the campaign, it did not order the removal of the entire video. Instead, Bennett was instructed to edit out only the specific segments featuring soldiers and artillery, allowing the rest of the video and its political message to remain.

Bennett must comply by revising the advertisement to exclude the disallowed IDF footage, but the campaign's core message regarding military service disparities between soldiers and the ultra-Orthodox community is still permitted for broadcast.