A government ministry may not repost Hebrew content from the minister's political account

The ruling

The decision examined separately the two elements of section 2A: election propaganda and use of public resources.

The content element: examined and rejected

The petitioner pointed to posts which, he argued, had a dominant purpose of election propaganda. Three of them were examined on their merits, and no ground for removal was found in them:

• The campaign against the Iranian regime: the post included praise for the Prime Minister. It was held that its main aim was to present the position of the State of Israel during a war and to show a united front under its leadership, and that this purpose outweighs a possible purpose of propaganda.
• The message to Spain about the CMCC: it was held that there is no bar to stating in an official post that the Foreign Minister, in coordination with the Prime Minister, is the one who decides.
• A condolence visit to the family of a Druze soldier: the phrase "our covenant" was read as the covenant of the State of Israel with the Druze community, not as a personal bond of the minister.

One post, about a new collective agreement for Foreign Ministry employees, was removed by the ministry, and the petition regarding it became moot.

The resource element: accepted

This is where the breach was found. The official accounts of a government ministry are public resources; the minister's personal-political accounts are private assets. The decision relied on a line of earlier decisions in local authority cases, which held that the official account must not be turned into a platform for presenting the elected official's messages.

The exception set for English

The decision set a unique exception: content in Hebrew, "the language of Israel alone", is of doubtful benefit in spreading the State of Israel's messages, while messages in English have more power in this area. For them it is easier to find that their dominant purpose is to advance foreign policy.

At the same time, two reservations were made clear. First, the exception will apply only to posts whose dominant purpose is not election propaganda; if a post is found to be mainly meant as propaganda, it must not be shared on an official account in any language. Second, it was recommended to consider opening a separate official account for the Foreign Minister, which would remove the need to repost from a personal-political account.

Outcome and costs

The respondents' position, that Hebrew posts from the Foreign Minister's personal-political account would no longer be reposted on an official account of the Foreign Ministry, was given the force of a decision; and for the avoidance of doubt, this also applies to the account of another minister or a deputy minister in the ministry. No order was given to remove other posts.

The Foreign Ministry was ordered to pay the petitioner's costs of NIS 5,000. In setting the amount, two things were weighed: the State's effort to find a balanced solution, and the conduct around requests for extensions. After an extension of about a week and a half was granted, with the note that "it is expected that no further extensions will be requested", another extension of one week was requested.

This page summarizes a public decision of the Chairperson of the Central Elections Committee for the 26th Knesset. The summary was prepared by our office and is not a substitute for reading the full decision. Nothing here is legal advice, and results achieved in the past are no promise of a similar result in the future.