Elections panel orders Eisenkot to take down AI campaign video showing IDF soldiers

By Sam Sokol 6 August 2026, 4:13 pm

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Sam 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"

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot attends a conference in Tel Aviv on July 12, 2026. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The Central Elections Committee orders Gadi Eisenkot, chair of the Yashar party, to take down a campaign video featuring AI-generated images of IDF soldiers “engaged in various military activities,” the committee says in a statement.

In its order, the committee says “the use of uniforms — which are intangible public property, and the images of IDF soldiers is a significant component of the video’s propaganda message — creates a connection between [Eisenkot] and the IDF, and therefore constitutes a prohibited use of public property for election propaganda purposes.”

The Central Elections Committee announced in January that it was setting up a dedicated team in conjunction with the Shin Bet to examine concerns about AI’s impact on the October 27 election.

Last month, it imposed a temporary measure requiring election campaigns to begin labeling AI-generated or AI-manipulated content that could be mistaken for authentic material.

A screenshot of the Yashar AI-generated video that was removed, shared by the rival Likud party. (Screenshot)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party calls the ruling “a resounding victory for the Likud party against the cynical use of IDF soldiers for the benefit of the Yashar party’s campaign.”

Netanyahu recently came under intense criticism after he shared an AI-generated campaign ad depicting rival Eisenkot rejecting an embrace from a young man with a T-shirt proclaiming “Israeli unity,” in favor of Mansour Abbas of the Arab party Ra’am. Critics said the ad appeared to mock Eisenkot’s son, Gal, who was killed fighting in Gaza.

In February, the Central Elections Committee ordered Likud to take down a manipulated image that appeared to show Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid joining hands with Arab party leaders.