Central Elections Committee chairman Noam Sohlberg ruled Thursday that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir must remove from social media a video he posted earlier this week showing the minister confronting terrorist prisoner Hassan Salama during a prison visit. The video, which featured Israel Prison Service officers, was deemed to violate the law prohibiting use of state resources for campaign purposes.
Sohlberg also ordered Ben-Gvir to pay NIS 10,000 in personal expenses, with his party paying an additional NIS 10,000, for a total fine of NIS 20,000.
The ruling came after two separate petitions were filed, one by the Public Committee Against Torture and another by the "Voters in Israel" organization, arguing that the video violated the prohibition on using public assets for election campaigning. Ben-Gvir acknowledged that public resources were involved in the video but claimed it was not campaign material, arguing instead that it conveyed a deterrence message to terrorists.
After reviewing the video's content, the accompanying text, and additional data, Sohlberg determined that the video does constitute campaign material. "Minister Ben-Gvir boasted of his actions, described his political plan for the future, and conveyed a personal message that only he is the one who deters," Sohlberg wrote. "Therefore, the primary purpose of the video is election campaigning, not deterrence. Since the legal prohibition was violated, the video must be removed from all social media accounts."
The ruling further stated that after weighing the severity of the violation in this case, "full exploitation of the minister's advantage in accessing public resources at the prison", Sohlberg ordered Ben-Gvir to pay personal expenses out of pocket, alongside expenses to be paid by his party, in the amount of NIS 20,000, split equally.
