A right-wing organization called "The Victory of Israel Project" posted a billboard bearing the message "Peace be done only with defeated enemies." Abu Mazen and Haniyeh are seen kneeling in a surrender position, above them are helicopters, and around them destruction and destruction. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai ordered the signs removed, alleging they incite violence "reminiscent of ISIS and Nazi acts." Huldai went on to say that the rules were broken and that "the other's humiliation is not our way."

Huldai has prided himself more than once in maintaining freedom of expression and pluralism in Tel Aviv. When he came out to defend the freedom of expression of the artist who wielded a flag in his buttocks, Kuldai stepped up and declared on a TV show "I'm ready to be killed so you can say your thing". Apparently the second part of things - if you are right-wing, I will use my power as mayor to shut your mouth - has gone down in editing.

But this is a bigger issue than Hulda's hypocrisy, which maintains pluralism and freedom of expression only toward a particular side of the political map. In the essay "On Liberty," the philosopher John Stewart Mill wrote that if the reasons justifying freedom of expression are not valid in any extreme case, they are not valid in any case. Indeed, protection of freedom of expression, even in relation to radical expressions, has become a feature of liberal democracy.

Even if he is not a great liberal, Huldai is still bound to obey, and the court has ruled repeatedly that ads with political expressions from billboards should not be removed. In 2001, Meir Indore asked to advertise on the billboards in Jerusalem, the advertisement "Yossi Sarid - Shamshesh of Arafat". The Jerusalem Municipality refused, citing the municipal ordinance and city bylaws.

Indore appealed to the High Court, which accepted the petition. Judge Dalia Dorner ruled that: "Freedom of speech compromised as a result of the municipality's refusal is a political expression, and it is therefore entitled to the maximum protection ... Indeed, the language of the amended ad is crude and insulting; However, as we know, freedom of expression also applies to offensive and irritating and even false expressions. "

In 2016, the "Eric Institute for Reconciliation and Peace" published billboards in Givat Shmuel, which read "For the military, it seems that the conflict is needed." In the ad they saw an Israeli tank and above it the flag of Israel, where the Star of David was replaced by the word "conflict". Givat Shmuel Municipality removed the awareness from the billboards, but even in this case the court ruled that the municipality's decision was unlawful. Judge Danziger ruled: "The general authority given to the mayor should not be regarded as allowing him to impose broad restrictions on the content of ads, especially when it comes to political expressions."

Just recently, Supreme Court Justice Nir Handel, sitting as acting chairman of the Central Election Commission, ruled that the advertising companies must post a campaign of the extremist Noam party, even though that campaign included offensive and anti-gay messages.

In light of all this, it is no wonder if the Tel Aviv City Attorney General's office failed in their duties when we did not update Mayor Huldai that his act was prohibited by law, or told him and he chose to ignore it.

Nissim Sofer is a research student at the Hebrew University and a publicist