"Running with my sons": the state camp uses the prep school students in the election campaign

The chairman of the party and the minister of defense recently held two events in which he ran on the beach and met with activists and supporters - but also with students of pre-military preparatory schools, apparently in violation of the law on election propaganda and the regulations of the preparatory schools. The party claims that these are not campaign events: "Ganz will continue to run whoever wants to listen"

His dew

02/10/2022

Sunday, October 02, 2022, 2:54 p.m. Updated: 4:40 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Running project with Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party in Yarkon Park, September 9, 2022 (from Facebook)

The "State Camp" campaign uses pre-military preparatory school students in election propaganda - this, in apparent violation of the election law and pre-military preparatory school regulations that prohibit any political activity.

In recent weeks, the chairman of the state camp, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, has held two campaign events under the title "Running with my sons", in the framework of which he goes for a run on Friday near the beaches and meets with activists and supporters. By Gantz's side are dozens of runners, who also star in videos produced at the events and uploaded to the various social networks. Some of them are Blue and White activists, but the vast majority are students of pre-military preparatory schools. At the "Run with my sons" event held at the Tel Aviv port in early September, these were students of Ofek Preparatory School. In a similar event that took place last Friday in Rishon Lezion, students of Bin Preparatory School participated "God.

The participation of the mechanists in the state camp campaign is apparently contrary to the Law on Elections through Propaganda, which forbids using the resources of bodies financed by the state for the purpose of election propaganda.

The budget for the pre-military preparations comes mostly from the Ministry of Defense, headed by Gantz.

The state camp already received a fine last month from the Central Election Commission for publishing photos of IDF soldiers in the campaign and now it turns out that the party is also using preparatory school students for propaganda.

"Running with my sons" project in Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, in September (photo: official website, from Facebook)

The pre-military preparatory schools intended for 12th graders are budgeted by the state, and operate under the joint authority of the Ministry of Defense, headed by Gantz, and the Ministry of Settlement, to which most of the powers have been transferred from the Ministry of Education in recent years. which operate together with the Jewish Agency under the authority of the Ministry of Education. In any case, the participation of the mechanists in Gantz's campaign is contrary to the regulations of the pre-military preparatory schools, which explicitly state severe restrictions of complete separation from parties and politics as a condition for receiving the budget.

The regulations state that "the preparatory school will not carry out any political or party activity , and there will be no activity contrary to the values ​​of the State of Israel and the IDF."

The regulations also require that the preparer and the corporation that operates it "was not and will not be connected in a legal or financial way with a political party, and will not carry out political activity as defined in these regulations".

More in the 2022 elections

Netanyahu in closed talks: If Shaked passes, she will extort the prime ministership from me like Bennett

To the full article

Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)

The first event that Gantz had with Ofek Preparatory students took place at the beginning of September and was first published by Mati Tuchfeld this weekend in Israel Hayom.

The state camp didn't try very hard to hide the collaboration either, and thanked the mechanics in a post they put up on social media that day.

Last Friday, another event of "Running with my sons" took place in Rishon Lezion, which was joined by Studio Friday reporter Yigal Moscow, who documented the bus dropping off students from Bina Preparatory School for Secular Judaism and their participation in the race.

Moscow commented to the director of the preparatory school, Yuval Linden, about their joining a political campaign, and he replied: "We are not joining a political campaign, we are coming to run with Gantz and listen to him like we meet during the election period with politicians from the various political spectrums."

According to the publication in Israel today, with the beginning of the election campaign in July,

The state camp claims that these are not campaign events and said in response, "We welcome the participation and interest of young people, and see running and the open political discourse that takes place within the events as an integral part of the educational process. Gantz will continue to run, will continue to meet with everyone who wants to hear him, and explain that only he can organize A stable and broad government, and to prevent the November nightmare in which Netanyahu returns to power with Ben Gabir and an extreme and dangerous government."

• 2022 election

• All the articles

Tags

• Benny Gantz

• The state camp

• 2022 election