Parties fined millions over Tel Aviv rally ahead of 2015 vote
Likud, Jewish Home, and Yisrael Beytenu punished by State Comptroller; V15 and Israel Hayom found to not have violated campaign finance rules
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira levied millions of shekels fines against several Israeli political parties — including three coalition members — for violating campaign laws during 2015 Knesset elections, he said in a report published Thursday.
Shapira’s report on the 2015 campaign season also cleared the V15 organization, which ran a campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel Hayom tabloid, which many see as overtly backing the prime minister, of illegal political donations.
Shapira said the Likud and Jewish Home parties were fined some NIS 850,000 ($222,000) apiece, the Joint (Arab) List was fined NIS 1.2 million ($310,00) and Yisrael Beytenu was fined close to NIS 200,000 ($52,000) for a variety of infractions.
The Likud party, led by Netanyahu, Jewish Home, and Yisrael Beytenu are all members of the government coalition.
Shapira found the three of them broke campaign finance rules when candidates appeared at a political rally ahead of the election, in a period during which they are not allowed to canvas for votes.
Shapira had examined to what extent two large rallies held in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square before the elections, one in support of left-wing parties and the other for those on the right, may have constituted a prohibited donation to the parties’ causes.
In both cases, aside from Likud and Yisrael Beytenu, none of the parties included the events in their financial reports. Likud and Yisrael Beytenu only reported the costs of busing supporters to the event and for the printing of posters.
The first rally, held on March 7 under the title “Israel wants change” saw the participation of activists from the dovish Meretz party and the Zionist Union, the latter of which went on to become the largest opposition faction after the elections.
In their defense the Zionist Union and Meretz argued that they did not organize the rally, did not actively encourage their members to take part, and did not have any official representation at the event.
At the second rally, held on March 15 under the banner “Uniting for the sake of the Land of Israel,” Netanyahu gave an election speech.
Shapira accepted the claims by Zionist Union and Meretz and ruled their passive participation was not enough to warrant the event as being specifically for their benefit and was not to be considered a contribution to the parties.
However, while Likud, Jewish Home, Yisrael Beytenu and the Yachad party — which failed to win any seats in the Knesset — all pleaded that they had not organized the second event and that it was aimed at general support for the right-wing camp, Shapira found that by speaking at the event, Netanyahu and the Likud had demonstrated the importance they attached to it.
All four parties had actively participated in the gathering and “their use of the rally infrastructure should be considered a prohibited contribution contravening the limitations laid down in the law,” Shapira wrote.
Both Likud and Jewish Home said they would study the report and draw conclusions.
“The Likud party accepts the comments by the State Comptroller and will implement them in full,” Likud legal adviser attorney Avi Halevi said, according to Channel 10 news.
There was no immediate response from the other parties.
The state comptroller also investigated pre-election claims by Likud that Israeli grassroots organization V15 had raised illegal funds to support parties against Netanyahu, and claims by opponents of Likud that the Hebrew-language daily Israel Hayom’s overt backing of Netanyahu amounted to a prohibited donation.
In both cases Shapira ruled there was not enough evidence to back the allegations.
The comptroller also detailed the parties’ overspending during the election, with Yesh Atid being the worst offender — running up a deficit of NIS 16 million ($4.1 million). The Likud overspent by NIS 10 million ($2.61 million), Yisrael Beytenu by NIS 9 million ($2.35 million) and Jewish Home by NIS 4 million ($1 million). The closest to staying on target was Zionist Union, which came in at NIS 2.8 million ($730,000) over budget.
In total, parties participating in the March 17, 2015 elections ran up a combined deficit of some NIS 60 million ($15.6 million) the report found.
The Times of Israel Community.