Netanyahu ordered to remove video featuring selfies with children
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
‘Israel’s’ Central Elections Committee on Thursday ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately remove a social media video showing him taking selfies and interacting with children, ruling that it violated campaign rules barring the use of minors in election propaganda.
The temporary injunction was issued by committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg after a petition filed by attorney and CPA Yaron Meiri.
Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg, the chairman of Israel's National Elections Commission, orders Netanyahu to delete from all his platforms an "election propaganda video" taken at Jerusalem's Malha Mall, that features images of children. https://t.co/6pjcv8Iiwh pic.twitter.com/MUMC7G8fWd
— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) August 13, 2026
The video, posted earlier this week on Netanyahu’s social media accounts, documented a visit to the Malha Mall in Jerusalem, where the prime minister is seen speaking with shoppers, posing for photographs, and engaging with multiple children.
Sohlberg accepted the argument that the footage constituted “a violation of the prohibition against involving children in election propaganda.”
Large portions of the clip feature the premier in personal contact with the minors.
‘Israeli’ election law (specifically provisions on campaign means) generally forbids children under 15 from appearing in election materials, with limited exceptions for routine activities.
The judge ordered the video taken down from all platforms but allowed it to be re-uploaded once the segments showing children in personal contact with Netanyahu are edited out.
“The video may be re-uploaded if the segments showing children in personal contact with Netanyahu are edited out,” according to the committee’s statement.
Deliberations on the petition will continue, Sohlberg noted, until a final ruling after formal responses are received from the prime minister and the Likud party.
The order remains temporary pending that process.
This is not the first time Netanyahu has faced such a restriction.
In 2015, the committee ordered the removal of a Likud campaign ad that portrayed him as a kindergarten teacher managing unruly children representing his political rivals, also for improperly featuring minors.
