The If You Will Movement filed a lawsuit in the Beit Shemesh Magistrate's Court for NIS 430,000, against the Central Election Commission, for three defamatory publications.
As mentioned, in a press release in February 2021, the committee claimed that it had succeeded in thwarting an attempt to disrupt the process of counting the votes in the Knesset elections.
The committee's director general, Adv. Orly Adas, said that the manpower company Tigbur won a tender to recruit employees for various positions in the double-counting ballot campaign, which takes place on the evening of Election Day in the Knesset.
According to Adas, the registration link for the position was leaked to the If You Will movement, before its public start, and it distributed it among its supporters and called on them to register.
At the end of the day, it turned out that there was a malfunction in the company with which the Election Commission called, but it chose to say in its announcement that it would "impose a penalty on if you will and its activists" and even stated that it "takes the incident seriously."
According to the indictment, "Because the Election Commission believes in the purity of the election - this statement, along with its statement that it will impose a penalty, can be interpreted as if you wanted to act to violate the purity of the election."
When it warned the media about this matter, the Election Commission again circulated a second publication, in the form of a press release, stating:
At the end of the announcement, the Election Commission noted: "We see this as a continuing chapter in attempts to undermine the public's confidence in the results and in the Election Commission."
According to If You Will, the three different publications described in the lawsuit are defamatory, for which the movement is demanding NIS 432,462.
In addition, the movement requested in the statement of claim that the court order the defendant to purchase an ad in all the media in which the first report was published, in which it will be written: " The center apologizes to me if you like the injury it suffered due to these incorrect publications. "
In the absence of the movement, attorneys Eran Ben-Ari and Assaf Tchelet responded: "We will thwart any attempt to blacken the good name of the If You Will movement, which works to promote the purity of elections and strengthen public confidence in democracy.
No hand is given to silence legitimate civic criticism of the operation of the Election Commission.
We expect the committee to cease marking and cataloging the movement, and to take responsibility for its actions.
"Unfortunately, the conversation with the committee did not work, so we had to go to court."
Matan Peleg, Chairman If You Will: "The Central Election Commission is the body that should place the most critical emphasis on public trust, hand hygiene and the public's claims against it.
In a series of publications, the committee chose to publish the slander of the 'If You Will' movement, without justification and without reason.
We are confident that the court will do justice.
The Electoral Commission would do well to act to strengthen trust in it and in the election campaign, instead of irresponsibly attacking the allegations made against it. "