Elections chief orders Likud to remove billboards pairing rivals with Abbas and Tibi

The chairman of Israel's Central Elections Committee has instructed the Likud party to take down its campaign billboards across the country that show leaders of the so-called change bloc alongside Abbas and Tibi, two prominent Arab politicians. According to the political commentator Amit Segal, the committee chairman, Solberg, issued the order after a petition was filed by Gadi Eisenkot.

Segal reported that the chairman found the signs could mislead voters into believing there is a possible political link between Eisenkot's list, named Yashar, and other lists that Yashar says it has no such connection with. N12, citing its reporter Dafna Liel, said the ruling came four days before polling stations open, placing it in the final stretch of the campaign.

What the Central Elections Committee does

The Central Elections Committee is the body that runs Israel's national elections to the Knesset, the country's parliament. Its membership is drawn from the parties represented in the outgoing Knesset, but it is chaired by a justice of the Supreme Court. Among its roles, the chairman rules on complaints about campaign conduct, including election advertising, and can order parties to change or withdraw material found to breach the rules. Petitions of this kind, in which one party asks the chairman to restrain another's campaign, are a regular feature of Israeli elections, particularly in the last weeks before a vote.

Who is involved

Likud is the right-wing party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is the party whose billboards are the subject of the order.

The change bloc is the label used in Israeli political discussion for the parties that oppose Netanyahu and seek to replace his government. The term is a translation of the Hebrew phrase used in the reports.

Gadi Eisenkot is a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces who entered politics and now heads the Yashar list, according to Segal's account. He brought the petition that led to the order.

Abbas and Tibi are named in the reports by surname only. In Israeli political coverage these names are generally understood to refer to Mansour Abbas, who leads the Islamist Ra'am party, and Ahmad Tibi, a long-serving Arab lawmaker. Parties on the right have often sought to associate their opponents with Arab parties, and opposition parties have often sought to distance themselves from that association, which is the backdrop to Eisenkot's complaint.

Differences between the reports

The four reports agree that the instruction was directed at Likud and concerned signs featuring Abbas and Tibi. They differ on who else appears on the billboards. Ynet's alert described the signs as showing Eisenkot himself with Abbas and Tibi. Segal, News.co.il and N12 described them more broadly as showing the heads of the change bloc together with the two Arab politicians. It is possible that different versions of the billboard exist, but the reports do not say so, and this article does not attempt to resolve the difference.

Segal and News.co.il also said the order applies to all such signs throughout the country, while Ynet's brief alert did not specify the scope.

Why the timing matters

According to N12, the ruling was issued four days before the polls open. Outdoor advertising is one of the most visible parts of an Israeli campaign, and an order to remove a nationwide set of billboards at this stage affects a message Likud had chosen to put in front of voters in the closing days. The reports do not describe how Likud responded.

What the reports do not say

The reports are short news alerts and leave several questions open:

• They do not give a deadline by which Likud must remove the billboards, or say what happens if it does not comply.
• They do not say whether Likud intends to comply, appeal or challenge the decision in another forum.
• They do not quote the full text of the ruling or any statement from Likud, Eisenkot or the Yashar list.
• They do not say how many billboards are affected or where they are located.
• They do not identify which other change-bloc leaders, if any, appear on the signs, and they disagree on whether Eisenkot alone or several bloc leaders are pictured.
• They do not say whether Abbas or Tibi, or their parties, took any position on the petition.

Israel.com will update this report if further details of the decision become available.