Following a Channel 14 investigation, Likud filed an urgent petition Wednesday with the chairman of the Central Elections Committee against AID Coalition and other entities connected to its activities. The legal move came after Channel 14 revealed last night that the organization behind the election-day flight operation to Israel supported, through a nonprofit, a project that worked to flip Likud voters to opposition parties. In its petition, the party is asking for an order preventing the respondents from funding, organizing, or assisting in bringing voters to Israel, including through financing and distributing gift cards.
Likud is also demanding that the Elections Committee chairman officially determine whether this is an entity active in the elections, and order the respondents to provide complete documentation regarding funding sources, their scope, the identity of participating entities, and digital campaign breakdowns. The petition argues that distributing gift cards worth up to $750 per person creates a direct link between providing benefits and actual voting, which could violate election law provisions and require registration, reporting, and transparency under the Political Parties Financing Law.
According to the report by our correspondent Ishai Friedman, AID Coalition previously supported, through the Israeli Camp nonprofit, a project called “We Are the Judaism of the Declaration of Independence.” Despite the organization’s claim that its activities are non-political, it was revealed that the project openly worked to transfer mandates from the coalition to the opposition. Recordings of Erez Gavish, one of the project’s founders, exposed that the campaign targeted the traditional and Likud-leaning public with the goal of moving voters to parties like those of Naftali Bennett or Avigdor Lieberman—which they would define as success.
In response to the report, Gavish claimed the initiative is non-partisan and does not work against Likud, and that his remarks were made about four months ago in the context of an ideological conversation dealing with combating religious extremism. Meanwhile, AID Coalition stated that the organization has supported dozens of social projects, and that Gavish’s statements represent his personal views only. The organization further emphasized that the Israeli Camp nonprofit is an independent body completely separate from their activities.