Days after Israel Hayom revealed that the seemingly neutral organization Israeli Alliance that wants to drive voter turnout may in fact be helping the Left through illicit campaigning, the Likud petitioned the Central Elections Committee on Thursday asking for its intervention.
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In 2017, the Likud successfully passed a new law in the Knesset dubbed the V15 Law that requires politically active organizations to register as a political entity with the State Comptroller's Office as if it was a party, and hence be subject to various campaign finance disclosure requirements and regulations if its activities are valued at more than NIS 102,000 ($28,000).
As far as Israel Hayom can tell, the Israeli Alliance has not registered as a political entity and has not disclosed its financial records in full despite meeting the threshold set by the V15 Law.
The organization may not be required to register as a political entity because it is technically not backing any particular party or political affiliation, but it appears that it may very well be targeting only specific voters through various tools that distribute ads on social networks to specific audiences, and that could be in violation of the law.
This could mean that while it is not in violation of the law in its official activities, it is, in fact, helping drive up turnout in specific areas in a way that increases the chances of victory for certain parties.
In its petition on Thursday, the Likud said that the "Israeli alliance is fully coordinating its activities with Blue and White and other civil society organizations on the Left." It further said that "following a query that has been filed with the State Comptroller's Office, it appears that the Israeli Alliance has not properly registered as political entity that is involved in electioneering, as is required by Israel's campaign finance laws, and this means that its activities in this election campaign are illegal."
Facebook provided Israel Hayom with the following statement following the Israel Hayom investigation: "The Facebook Ad Library includes the ads of every page that uses our apps and services. For ads that deal with elections or political matters, the library shows who has seen the ad and the expenses and exposure of each ad, and it saves the ads for seven years. It also includes information on the page that promotes the ad, the 'paid for by' statement, phone number, email of the advertiser, the link to its site and other ads of that advertiser. The report is updated daily and is accessible to everyone. We are committed to being transparent but also to maintaining the privacy of people on the platform."
The Israeli Alliance issued the following statement: "We love Israel. We are disheartened to see the state holding one election after another in this never-ending cycle. In order to avoid another fourth early election, we call on all Israelis from all parts of Israel and from all political persuasions to go out and vote. A third time is enough, and it depends only on Israelis. Those who feel hurt by activity undertaken by civil society and fears that Israelis will exercise their democratic right should think hard what their motives are.
"It is unfortunate that Israel Hayom has not carried out its duty as a major media organization to encourage turnout for everyone and has ignored our requests for collaboration on the matter, and has instead chosen to suppress such initiatives."
