Likud seeks injunction against V15 group - Mati Tuchfeld and Israel Hayom Staff

by Mati Tuchfeld and Israel Hayom Staff

Party motions Jerusalem District Court for urgent interim order barring Labor, Victory 2015 campaign, Meretz and OneVoice from "engaging in financed election propaganda" pending ruling on whether such action violates elections, campaign financing laws.

A Victory 2015 campaign office [Illustrative] | Photo credit: Yehoshua Yosef

The Likud party on Monday filed an urgent motion with the Jerusalem District Court for an injunction against Victory 2015 campaign's activities, alleging that V15, which is believed to have direct ties to Labor-Hatnuah's Zionist Union, is in violation of elections and campaign financing laws. 

The motion was filed after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled that the Central Elections Committee was barred from ruling on a different petition filed by the Likud against V15's activities. As the March 17 elections are only a month away, Jerusalem District Court Zvi Segal has informed the parties he will rule on the motion by Wednesday.

The Victory 2015 campaign explicitly urges voters to replace the current government, but its allegedly clear ties to the leftist parties, as well as the obscure origins of that its multi-million dollar funding, have prompted suspicions that its activities were, in fact, illegal. 

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira announced last week that he plans to audit V15 following the elections. 

The Likud's motion for an injunction said the party "asks the court to issue an interim order against [V15], which assists the National Union list, but is funded by external elements and not the [Labor and Hatnuah] parties themselves." It further names the Labor party, Meretz, V15 and the OneVoice nongovernmental organization, and asks the court to bar them from "engaging in indirect election propaganda, or financed election propaganda that entails collecting the names and contact information of potential voters, pending a ruling on the main complaint."

Three weeks ago, the Likud held a press conference in which it presented evidence allegedly linking the Zionist Union to V15 and other left-wing groups which urge voters to unseat the government, including Project 61, which seeks to make election polls more accessible to the public, and the Molad Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy.

V15's main sponsors are left-wing American businessman S. Daniel Abraham, and OneVoice, founded by Mexican-American billionaire Daniel Lubetzky. 

Mati Tuchfeld and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=23581

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