Israel Election Chief Orders Netanyahu to Remove Campaign Videos Made With State Resources

The chairman of Israel's Central Elections Committee, Justice Noam Sohlberg, ruled on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu violated election propaganda laws on five occasions in recent months, according to The Times of Israel and Haaretz.

Sohlberg ordered Netanyahu to remove, in full or in part, videos of speeches made using public resources from official and political social media channels. Israel is scheduled to hold Knesset elections on October 27.

Petitions over six speeches

Watchdog groups filed petitions over six speeches containing election content that Netanyahu gave on state property, such as the Prime Minister's Office press room, or during military ceremonies and situation assessments, The Times of Israel reported.

In two cases, Sohlberg ruled that all content from the speeches must be removed from official accounts and from Netanyahu's personal accounts. In three cases, Netanyahu must remove all or part of the content from official accounts. In one case, Sohlberg found the speech was not propaganda and declined to order its removal.

Video from IDF base in southern Lebanon

One of the videos ordered removed covered Netanyahu's visit to an Israeli military base in southern Lebanon, according to the report. Haaretz said the committee told Netanyahu to remove campaign videos showing the IDF.

Sohlberg found the visit was legitimate as a way of raising soldiers' morale, but said those parts were edited out of the published video. Instead, it included remarks that could only be seen as "boasting" on behalf of the government and its leader, and "election propaganda whose intention is to persuade the voter," he wrote.

He added that the video "uses public photography and distribution resources, that is to say, the Government Press Office", and noted that such a base visit is not a resource available to other candidates.

Channel 12 reported that the video had already been taken down under a temporary court order, The Times of Israel said.

NIS 29,000 in costs

Sohlberg also ordered Netanyahu to personally pay NIS 29,000 (about $9,500) in total expenses to the three watchdog groups that filed the petitions, as well as to the Prime Minister's Office and the Attorney General's Office.

There was no immediate public response from Netanyahu in the reports reviewed by The Candor Post.

Other campaign rulings

The committee has issued several similar orders during the campaign. Last week, Sohlberg ordered National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to remove a video filmed with a senior Hamas prisoner and fined him NIS 10,000, The Times of Israel reported.

The committee has also ordered opposition Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot to take down a campaign video featuring AI-generated images of IDF soldiers.