The televised spots sponsored by Israel’s different political parties will begin airing tonight (Tuesday). Yesterday, the Central Election Committee banned Balad’s clip (below) for “mocking the national anthem.” The clip shows right-wing legislators (Avigdor Lieberman, Michael-Ben Ari, Danny Danon and Aryeh Eldad) singing the Israeli anthem to an Arabic tune.
Recently, the Central Election Committee, the governmental body full of representatives of various Knesset parties, disqualified Balad MK Haneen Zoabi from participating in the elections. The decision was recently reversed by the Supreme Court.
According to Israeli election law, parties cannot buy television spots, and air time is allocated for free in proportion to the party sizes.
In 1998, Ale Yarok, the pro-marijuana legalization party, aired its own trance version of Hatikvah (the national anthem). It wasn’t banned, so we now know something about the musical prefrences of Israeli politicians as well. Watch the clip below – it’s awesome, in a very campy way.
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WATCH: Ultra-right Israeli MKs mock Arabs in Arabic campaign video