Central Elections Committee bans Likud parody of Yesh Atid campaign ad

Likud ordered to pay rival NIS 40,000 in compensation for taking excerpts from Yesh Atid video and creating satire version without identifying it as a Likud production

By ToI Staff 23 August 2022, 7:55 pm

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An election campaign billboard for the Likud party that shows a portrait of its leader Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid in Ramat Gan, March 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

The Central Elections Committee ruled on Tuesday that a campaign video published by the Likud party attacking the centrist Yesh Atid must be removed from all social media sites where it was posted earlier this month.

Committee chair Justice Isaac Amit also ordered Likud to pay NIS 40,000 ($12,257) in compensation to Yesh Atid over the video.

The ruling came in response to an appeal filed last week by Yesh Atid against the ad.

The Likud video used excerpts from a Yesh Atid clip titled “Just a year in a power and see what we managed.” The original Yesh Atid video promoted achievements by the government since it was formed in June 2021, while the Likud version, in a similar format, presented alleged failures by the coalition.

But the Likud video does not include any “means of identification” such as a faction nickname, a list of candidates or the party name, in violation of rules for election propaganda, the committee found.