Elections committee orders Likud to delete doctored image of Bennett with Arab party heads

The Central Elections Committee ruled Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party must take down a manipulated image that appears to show Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid joining hands with Arab party leaders in celebration of a deal that the two men weren’t part of or present for.

The doctored photo was created based on an image of Arab political leaders celebrating after announcing they would undertake efforts to run together in the next elections. It depicts Bennett, a former prime minister, and Lapid, the current opposition leader, hailing the plan alongside the Arab politicians, as part of an election campaign, arguing that all those parties will join forces to form a coalition if given the power to do so.

As of Friday afternoon, the picture was still on Likud’s X account, posted without any commentary or disclaimer.

The committee said that, in addition to taking down the image, Likud must also cover Bennett’s NIS 8,500 ($2,800) fee for bringing his complaint.

Bennett’s party — which uses the temporary name “Bennett 2026” — said in a statement on Friday: “We’re winning against the poison machine.” It pledged to “work with all our power against the lies, the AI fakes and the poison.”

There was no immediate comment from Lapid, though he had also denounced those who shared the fake image, writing last month that “if this is allowed, then we’re not in a political debate, we’re in a gang war that will tear the country apart.”

Bennett is widely seen as Netanyahu’s primary challenger for the premiership in this year’s Knesset election. The vote must be held by October, but could come earlier if the coalition collapses.

In 2021-2022, Bennett teamed up with Yair Lapid and a bloc of parties opposed to Netanyahu — including the Islamist Ra’am — which allowed him to unseat the longtime premier, who had been in office for more than 12 years.

During his campaign, Bennett had pledged not to sit in a government led by Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and made up of left-wing parties, a promise he broke weeks later and which he has said he regrets making.

The ex-premier has continued to defend his previous coalition, but has said repeatedly in semi-private remarks that following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, there is “no mandate” for a similar partnership this time around.

Polls, meanwhile, consistently show neither the current coalition nor the Zionist opposition bloc achieving a majority of seats without the backing of at least some of the Arab parties’ lawmakers, if elections were held today.