Judge says advertisers can’t refuse homophobic party’s campaign ads
Supreme Court Justice Neal Hendel rules a special law forbids companies from ‘discriminating’ between political ads during elections
A Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ruled in favor of the anti-gay political party Noam and ordered two advertising firms to run ads by the party accusing gays of “buying children.”
Noam, a far-right religious conservative party that has made combating LGBT acceptance the focus of its fledgling campaign, purchased ad space on the side of a hotel at the main entrance to Jerusalem and on the sides of buses.
But the two companies who sold the party the space — Knaan Media in Motion Ltd. runs the buses, while Y. Mor Advertising Ltd. controls the hotel space — only found out about the content of the ads after the sale.
Two slogans, targeting gays and Reform Jews, make up Noam’s campaign. They depict a choice between a “normal” society and an abnormal one.
“[Gay] pride and the buying of children, or having my son marry a woman – Israel chooses to be normal,” reads one. “Reform [Judaism] or my grandson remains Jewish – Israel chooses to be normal,” reads the other.
The companies refused to run the ads, arguing that the messages were hurtful toward significant portions of the Israeli population, and would cause them financial damage by being associated with unpopular views.
Noam appealed against the advertisers’ refusal to the Central Elections Committee, the body within Israel’s Knesset that administers the elections and enforces election laws.
Committee chair Hanan Melcer, a Supreme Court justice, handed the case to his deputy Neal Hendel, who is also a justice.
In his decision, published Tuesday, Hendel sided with Noam and ordered the companies to run the ads and pay Noam’s legal fees.
Hendel explained his decision by pointing to the difference in Israeli law between ordinary advertising and election advertising.
Private marketing firms are allowed to refuse to run ads they disagree with — with one exception. The 1959 Election Law (Publicizing Methods) sharply restricts this freedom when it comes to ads by political parties during an election campaign.
That law forbids firms that own publicly visible ad space and choose to run any political advertising from any party during an election campaign, from refusing to run ads by other political parties. Companies are prohibited from discriminating between parties “in any way, including price, date of publication and placement of campaign materials on public advertising installations,” the law reads.
Hendel noted in his Tuesday decision that an advertiser “need not commit their advertising space to [election] campaign messaging” in the first place. But once a marketing firm “joins in campaign advertising and devotes advertising installations [to political ads from any party], these resources are open to all parties and all candidates, and the marketer is forbidden from discriminating between them.”
The two companies at the center of the ruling are among Israel’s largest providers of public ad space. Y. Mor Advertising Ltd. owns dozens of billboards on bridges spanning major highways and on the sides of major buildings. These include some of the most prominent and visible ad space in the country. Knaan Media in Motion Ltd. controls advertising on the sides of hundreds of buses nationwide.
The Noam party, which polls far below any chance of passing the 3.25-percent vote threshold for entering the Knesset, has centered its campaign on such provocative billboards and video ads with the slogan “Israel chooses to be normal.” The party has claimed the LGBT community has “forced its agenda” on the rest of Israeli society, which it says believes in a “normal” family structure.
The fringe party’s spiritual leader is Rabbi Tzvi Tau, the founder of the Har Hamor yeshiva in Jerusalem. The 81-year-old has been a leading voice in the national religious community against LGBT acceptance. In 2017, he wrote that homosexuality is the “ugliest deviation, which breaks down family life… and contradicts the first basis of human existence.”
The party’s founders include the head of the anti-LGBT group Hazon, Dror Aryeh; Migron settlement rabbi Itai Halevi; high-tech businessman Ariel Shahar; and Kfar Adumim resident Yigal Canaan, who works in tourism.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
