From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Elections committee orders Smotrich’s party to remove AI campaign video featuring young children
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Central Elections Committee issues a temporary injunction ordering the Religious Zionism party to take down an AI-generated campaign video posted on social media featuring young children discussing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to minimize the amount of time IDF reservists are called up.
In a statement, the CEC says that its chairman, Justice Noam Sohlberg, determined that the video, which features a girl claiming that her father had not been called up for reserve duty in a year due to Smotrich’s policies, should be taken down until a petition against the use of children under the age of 15 in campaign material can be adjudicated.
מחזירים את המילואימניקים הביתה ????????
תכנית ״מילואימניקים הביתה״ של סמוטריץ׳ תייעל את מערך המילואים, תוציא לפועל את התוכנית הלאומית לגיוס חרדים ותעגן את חוק יסוד המשרתים.
צפו >>> https://t.co/Ek2Zzln93T pic.twitter.com/U6HqjvFuwE
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) August 19, 2026
Earlier in the day, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party sent a legal letter to Smotrich, demanding that he remove the video over its use of children. The letter asserted that the clip should have been labeled as AI since it “portrays Smotrich as someone working on behalf of reservists” while he actually “acted to pass ultra-Orthodox draft-evasion legislation.”
The CEC’s decision comes a day after it ordered B’Yachad party chairman Naftali Bennett to remove video clips of soldiers engaged in operational activity from a campaign video in which he slammed the ultra-Orthodox for evading the draft.
The Times of Israel Community.