Petition filed to election panel against participation of religious Zionist yeshivas in right-wing campaign

The Israel Education Watch organization files a petition to the Central Elections Committee against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Religious Zionism party, the Union of Hesder Yeshivas and the Union of Yeshiva High Schools asking that orders be issued to halt the use of students studying in publicly funded educational institutions for party political activities, specifically as part of efforts to increase voter turnout on election day.

The petition highlights an election day get-out-the-vote campaign announced earlier this week at a Religious Zionism election rally, in which students in Hesder yeshivas and yeshiva high schools will participate and which is explicitly designed to increase the vote for right-wing parties.

Students in Hesder yeshivas are enlisted soldiers combining yeshiva study and military service and are therefore prohibited from participating in political activity.

High school yeshivas are also publicly funded, meaning that they, too, may not use their resources for political campaigns, Israel Education Watch’s petition asserts.

The Likud party is also a partner with the Religious Zionism party in the get-out-the-vote election day campaign.

Footage broadcast by Channel 12 news has shown that several prominent deans of Hesder yeshivas have directly called on their students to vote for the Religious Zionism party and participate in its election campaign activities.

“The purpose of the prohibition against using public resources for campaign purposes is to maintain public trust in the apolitical nature of public service and to ensure that public resources are used solely for the public good, rather than for the benefit of a candidate or a party,” the petition says. “The purpose of the prohibition against the participation of soldiers in election campaigning is to keep the IDF and its soldiers removed from political controversy.”