Election czar suspends Shas ad touting Haredi party’s support from troops

Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg issues an interim order requiring Shas chairman Aryeh Deri to take down a campaign video featuring an IDF serviceman following a complaint by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party.

The committee gives Deri two days to respond to Yashar’s petition, which alleged that the video, among other issues, constituted a violation of the prohibition against using the IDF in election propaganda.

In an apparent bid to hold onto moderate voters turned off by its hardline stance against IDF conscription, Shas on Saturday evening launched its election campaign with a video featuring a family waiting for their son to arrive home from the army for Shabbat dinner. As the young soldier runs in, he is hugged by his father and brother, a full-time yeshiva student, and a message runs on the screen stating that “more than 30,000 conscripts and career soldiers voted for Shas in the last election.”

The latter figure is untrue. It is based on the counting of “double envelopes” containing the votes of those who didn’t vote near their home, including soldiers, which are usually counted after the rest of the votes nationwide have been counted. However, the double envelopes also contain the votes of other security forces, prisoners and detainees, hospital patients and workers, diplomats and envoys abroad, and people with disabilities who voted at accessible ballot stations.

The ad appeared to stand in stark contrast to Shas’s actions in recent years, with the party at the forefront of efforts to enshrine legislation that would grant an almost complete exemption from military service to ultra-Orthodox men.

Writing to Shas, Yashar’s attorney argued that the ad violates an electoral ban on the use of images of soldiers.

New Shas campaign ad seems intent on fixing its hardline anti-conscription efforts' effect on its more traditional, Zionist voters pic.twitter.com/MKXPLBNy3j

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 22, 2026

“This video is not merely election propaganda made in a manner ‘likely to create the impression that the Israel Defense Forces identifies with a party,’ but the claim is made explicitly,” the letter stated. “It is deeply outrageous that Shas chose to launch its campaign with an advertisement featuring IDF soldiers after working for three years of war to pass a draft evasion law and fully prioritizing those who chose not to serve.”

Shas had refused to take down the campaign video, asserting that “no IDF symbols were used whatsoever” in the ad.

“It depicts a family member returning home from base in civilian clothes to refute false propaganda, including from Eisenkot and his party, suggesting that Shas supports draft evasion.”

בוקר טוב הרב אריה,
מרגש אותי מאוד לראות את הסרטון כנציג התנועה, משום שהוא משקף בדיוק את משפחתי: בן אחד קצין בדרגת רב־סרן בקבע, בן שני אברך בכולל, בן שלישי לוחם בכפיר והרביעי לומד בישיבה קטנה.
מבחינתי, אין דבר מרגש ואותנטי יותר. זו האמת שלנו, וזו המשפחה הש״סית.
דורון לוי, תל אביב https://t.co/bwetcKtqYL pic.twitter.com/mOvFMvCCug

— אריה מכלוף דרעי (@ariyederi) August 23, 2026

Shas, which traditionally represents ultra-Orthodox Jews of Middle Eastern and North African extraction, is reportedly concerned that voters upset over the party’s hardline stance on the draft issue will defect to other parties, including Yashar.

After rejecting Yashar’s demand, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri reposted the video online alongside a picture of a family of Shas supporters, two of whose sons serve in the IDF while the third learns full-time.

The Central Elections Committee recently ordered both Eisenkot and B’Yachad party chairman Naftali Bennett to take down election videos featuring soldiers.