From the Liveblog of
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Otzma Yehudit ordered to blur faces of police officers in campaign video
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"
Central Elections Committee chairman and Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg orders National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, to blur the faces of police officers and other security personnel featured in a campaign video.
The ruling comes in response to a petition claiming that the video uses public assets in connection with election propaganda.
The ruling comes only days after the committee ordered Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot to take down a campaign video featuring AI-generated images of IDF soldiers “engaged in various military activities.”
In that earlier order, which was made last Thursday, the CEC said that “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 Times of Israel Community.