Former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s party, Bennett 2026, filed a police complaint on Monday against the Likud Party for forging a picture of him in which he appears to be celebrating with Arab party leaders during a signing to reestablish the Joint List Bloc, alongside opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid).
A petition will also be filed to Israel's Central Elections Committee over the forged picture, Bennett's party said.
The official picture was taken when the leaders of the four central Arab parties, Ra’am, Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad, signed a commitment on Thursday evening to work toward reestablishing the Joint List bloc ahead of the next elections. The leaders were filmed celebrating afterwards.
The photo was captioned 'the serving coalition'
Shortly after the signing, the Likud shared the picture, inserting Lapid and Bennett on the right, holding hands with Arab party leaders. The X/Twitter post was captioned, “the serving coalition.”
Bennett’s party stated that it was important to draw red lines ahead of the elections, scheduled to take place no later than October 2026. His party has been trailing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in recent polls.
“The State of Israel is facing a critical election campaign, and therefore, red lines must be drawn already at this stage.”
“We will fight any attempt to create fake news that poisons public discourse and divides the country,” the party added.
In 2021, the Ra’am Party (United Arab List) joined the coalition during the Bennett-Lapid government, marking the first time an Arab party was a formal member of a governing coalition.
Opposition parties, rivaling Netanyahu in the elections, have rejected sitting with Arab parties in the next government.
MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash-Ta’al) told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that all the Zionist parties have said they do not want to have any Arabs in their coalition.