Gadi Eisenkot petitions for Bezalel Smotrich to remove AI-generated video - The Jerusalem Post

In June 2026, Yashar Party head Gadi Eisenkot filed a formal petition with the Central Elections Committee against Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The legal action followed the release of an AI-generated video on social media that depicted Eisenkot in fabricated political scenarios.

What happened

The controversy centered on a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, by Bezalel Smotrich on June 23, 2026. The AI-generated content depicted Gadi Eisenkot shaking hands and posing with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Ra’am party leader MK Mansour Abbas. Furthermore, the video featured imagery of an Israeli flag being replaced by a Palestinian flag, accompanied by text asserting that an Eisenkot-led government would result in the creation of a Palestinian state.

In his petition, Eisenkot accused Smotrich and the Religious Zionist Party of attempting to spread hatred and deliberately deceive the electorate through the use of synthetic media. The Yashar Party described the content as a manipulative attempt to replace facts with propaganda. Eisenkot requested that the chairman of the General Elections Committee intervene to establish a clear boundary, arguing that the election campaign should not be an arena where AI-generated lies and manipulations replace reality.

Smotrich responded to the petition on social media, maintaining that the claims made in the video regarding Eisenkot's potential governing partners represented the truth, and stated that no petition would succeed in hiding it.