Zionist Camp Demands Inquiry into ‘Fake Social Media’ Posts

Zionist Camp officials on Sunday were demanding an investigation into what they said were fake social media messages distributed in the party’s name that they said placed the party in a poor light. The officials sent an official request to State Attorney Avichai Mandelblit, demanding that an investigation be conducted in order to reveal the group behind the messages.

The posts, released hours before Motzoei Shabbos’s protest in Tel Aviv by the Druze community against the Nationality Law, purported to indicate a plot in which the party colluded with the Druze community to act against the Likud. “The Druze leaders are bringing the results we need,” said one of the messages. “Thanks to them we will return to power.” Other posts bandied the possibility of adding several Druze community leaders to the party’s list for the next Knesset.

In a statement, the party said that the posts, “in the name of an individual who according to our records is not a party member and does not exist, are 100 percent fake. We will work with the authorities to uncover the identity of the perpetrators.”

Party chairperson Avi Gabay blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud for the posts. “A spirit of hate and divisiveness have emerged from the posts that the Likud has been putting out. This evil, dangerous and divisive spirit is dividing Israeli society and ripping it apart at the seams. They believe that everything is legitimate in the interest of winning elections, and saving themselves from police investigations. We will replace you, we will fix the things that you destroyed and turn the Declaration of Independence into Israel’s constitution – making it the state of the Jewish people, with equal rights for all,” Gabay wrote in his own social media message.

In response, the Likud said in a statement that “it is not surprising that a man who has recently been exposed as conducting phony campaigns against his political rivals would mistakenly believe that others are acting in the same way. We don’t know if these posts are real or fake, but we do know this entire crisis and the phony accusations and panic of Gabay are completely manufactured.”