Judge Noam Solberg, head of the Central Elections Commission, ordered Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionist party to immediately remove the campaign video from all social media platforms, ruling that it could mislead voters.
The petition centered on a video posted on Smotrich’s Facebook page that showed a person resembling Gadi Eisenkot shaking hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before being joined by MK Mansour Abbas. Although the scenes were created using artificial intelligence, they were presented in a realistic manner, with only captions indicating that the video was edited using AI.
In his ruling, Sohlberg ruled that the videos depicted events and political relationships that never occurred and could falsely lead viewers to believe they were real. He said the content gave the impression of non-existent political ties between Eisenkot and Mansour Abbas and violated legal prohibitions against undue interference in election propaganda.
The judge also rejected arguments that the AI disclaimer was sufficient, saying Facebook users were unlikely to consistently notice the labels because of the way the platform displays content. So he ordered Smotrich and his group to remove the video from all digital platforms under their control.
