The chairman of the Central Elections Committee issued an interim order directing the removal of a video published on both the Prime Minister’s Office’s official accounts and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal political account.
The order followed a petition filed by the nonprofit organization “Voters in Israel,” which argued that the video constituted prohibited election propaganda involving the use of public resources.
The video includes an excerpt from remarks Netanyahu made during a multi-front situational assessment with the IDF’s senior command forum. In the remarks, he referred to pressure placed on him to release the hostages before the date on which they were ultimately released.
The committee chairman said the video’s simultaneous publication on official and personal political accounts raised concerns. If the video constitutes election propaganda, he noted, it should not appear on official accounts.
Final decision is pending as decisive judgment expected later
If it does not constitute election propaganda, it is unclear what purpose is served by also publishing it on Netanyahu’s personal political account.
Without ruling at this stage on whether the video constitutes election propaganda, the chairman ordered its removal from all accounts until proceedings on the petition are completed.
The proceedings are ongoing, and an additional announcement is expected when the final decision is handed down.