Billboard advertisements in haredi neighborhoods promising “blessings” from rabbis for voting for particular political parties in Knesset elections have been common in recent years – but not this elections season.
United Torah Judaism released an ad two and a half weeks before elections, Walla! News reports, with senior rabbis in the Ashkenazi haredi community calling for students and followers to vote for them. In total, 26 rabbis signed the ad, which promised voters “a long life, sustenance, children, and blessings” for their vote.
However, the ad was pulled from boards due to the efforts of religious freedom organization Hiddush. The group turned to the Central Elections Committee over the ads, which are in violation of elections laws. UTJ later pulled the ads, calling them a “mistake.”
This follows a legal process during the 2013 elections for the 19th Knesset whereby then-CEC chairman Justice Rubinstein implemented a series of changes to the wording of the law.
Election law states that “any person soliciting a list of candidates to vote for a certain way, whereby by swearing, curses, ostracism, boycotts, or vows or promises to give a blessing [for votes], is liable to imprisonment for five years or a fine.”
Under this, Hiddush pressed the CEC to declare the current UTJ add “illegal,” and it was pulled from an ad spot in party-linked Shabbat newsletters on Friday. A revised version of the ad wishes the Knesset members – not voters – the promises listed in the blessings section.
“This incident proves that there is no need to lose hope, and that amendments to advertising laws can make even United Torah Judaism maintain Israeli law,” Hiddush director and attorney Uri Regev stated in response. “There is hope that United Torah Judaism internalized the lesson and the next elections we won’t be having the same mistake again.”
According to him, promises of blessings from rabbis “have special weight and value in the eyes of haredi voters, who believe in their magic power.”
“It is hard not to wonder if the refusal of the United Torah Judaism to give up the forbidden means of blessings, is an admission that without the mystical promises, the party will lose many votes,” he added.
