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Sunday, August 28, 2022
Elections Committee dismisses Yesh Atid petition against Likud campaign video
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The Central Elections Committee rejects out of hand a petition filed by Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party against a campaign video released by opposition chief Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
The committee’s chairman, Supreme Court Justice Isaac Amit, rules that the clip — in which Likud accused Lapid and Joint List politicians of meeting representatives of the Palestinian Authority, handing them influence over the upcoming November 1 Knesset elections — doesn’t violate the law and should not be removed.
Yesh Atid charged that the campaign spot includes lies — since Lapid hasn’t met PA representatives as prime minister — and thus violates a legal clause that prohibits political parties from “disrupting” other parties’ campaigns.
Amit dismisses the argument and says his committee isn’t tasked with determining the accuracy of campaign claims, and doesn’t have the means to do so.
He says the legal clause doesn’t relate to the accuracy of the campaign’s content, but rather to the question of whether campaign material by one party could disrupt the campaign of another party — for instance, by making it seem it is campaign material by a different party.
Amit rejects the petition and orders Yesh Atid to pay NIS 10,000 ($3,075) in legal fees.
The Times of Israel Community.