Gantz fined by elections czar for posting photo of IDF soldiers

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz was fined by the elections czar on Sunday for sharing a photograph on his social media accounts of Israeli soldiers who were  injured in a car-ramming attack in Jerusalem.

The Central Elections Committee chairman, Justice Neal Hendel, ordered Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, to remove the photo of some of the wounded soldiers, who had attended a military swearing-in ceremony after being discharged from the hospital in the wake of the attack.

Hendel ruled Gantz had violated campaign laws and ordered him to pay a NIS 4,000 ($1,167) penalty.

Campaign advertising rules forbid using uniformed soldiers in campaign materials and it is illegal to campaign on IDF bases.

In the predawn hours of February 6, a Palestinian man rammed his car into a group of Golani soldiers standing on Jerusalem’s David Remez Street outside the First Station, a popular entertainment hub in the capital, injuring 12 of them, one of them seriously.

According to the army, the soldiers were members of the Golani Brigade who were at the First Station during a “heritage tour” ahead of an early morning swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall.

The driver, a 25-year-old East Jerusalem resident, fled the scene and was later arrested by Israeli forces. His family denies the attack was deliberate.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also got into trouble during the April 2019 election campaign for using images of on-duty soldiers. Netanyahu, who was at the time defense minister, was ordered by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to remove the photos.

Israel heads to elections on March 2 — the third round in under a year.