"Yashar" party, led by former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, filed a complaint to Israel's Central Elections Committee demanding that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich remove a campaign video from his social media account.
The complaint was first reported by political correspondent Yossi Ben Atar on Srugim website.
Attorney Uri Haberman submitted the complaint on behalf of the party, targeting a video Smotrich posted titled "Bringing the Reservists Home". According to "Yshar", the video violates Israeli election law by featuring children in campaign material.
The party cited Section of Israel's Elections Law, which prohibits the use of minors in election propaganda. "Yashr" set a deadline until thursday at 4:00 PM (Israel time) deadline for removing the video and indicated this was a preliminary step before pursuing further action.
It should be noted that this represents a demand from "Yashar" party rather than a ruling from the Elections Committee chairman ordering the video's removal.
Beyond the legal argument regarding the children's appearance, Eisenkot's party also challenged the message Smotrich presents in the video. They argued the video should have been labeled as AI-generated content, since it portrays the Religious Zionism party leader as an advocate for reservists.
According to Eisenkot, Smotrich has actually promoted legislation that would allow ultra-Orthodox citizens to avoid military service, at the expense of the IDF, those who do serve, and national security. This represents a political claim by the party against the video's message, rather than an assertion that artificial intelligence was actually used in its production.
"True Religious Zionism believes in and acts according to the values of service, shared burden, and the Israeli story", "Yashar" spokesperson stated. "Those who encourage draft evasion and burden reservists cannot present themselves as representing the values of Religious Zionism".
"Yashar" party is now waiting to see if the video will be removed by their stated deadline. If the demand goes unmet, she may file a new petition to the Israeli Elections Committee demanding to take additional measures against Smotrich and the "Religious Zionism" party.
