Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing sharp accusations of using artificial intelligence to produce and distribute campaign propaganda that depicts his political rivals as being aligned with—and even visually transformed into—Arab citizens of Israel, in an effort to rally his right-wing base during the current Knesset election campaign.

📹 The Content of the Videos

• Visual Transformation: The ads allegedly use AI to morph footage or still images of opposition leaders such as Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Benny Gantz (National Unity) to make their facial features appear more stereotypically Arab, or to dress them in traditional Arab headdresses (keffiyehs). The goal is to brand them as sympathetic to Arab political parties and “weak” on security.
• Political Message: The voiceover and text typically accuse Lapid and Gantz of planning to form a coalition with the Joint Arab List (Ra’am) and the Arab Democratic Party, which the Prime Minister has consistently labeled as a threat to a “pure Jewish majority.”

⚖️ Legal and Political Implications

• The “Racism” Accusation: Critics, including the leaders targeted, have labeled the campaign as “incitement” and “blatant racism,” arguing that it uses ethnic identity as a weapon. They accuse Netanyahu of trying to dehumanize Arab citizens and create an “us versus them” emergency to save his coalition.
• AI Regulations: While Israel has laws against racist incitement, the use of AI to generate synthetic political content is a relatively new phenomenon. The Attorney General’s office has reportedly been asked to review whether the material violates election laws regarding “false publicity” or incitement to racism.

🗳️ Electoral Strategy

Netanyahu is trailing the new opposition “Together” alliance (Bennett-Lapid) in the polls and is fighting to retain his hard-right base (Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit).

• GOTV Effort: By creating a narrative that a Lapid/Gantz government represents the “Arab takeover,” he is trying to drive up turnout among Likud voters who might stay home.
• Shifting the Campaign: The tactic attempts to move the conversation away from the failed October 7th intelligence and Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, refocusing it on a security and demographic “crisis” that threatens his base.

💬 Neturei Karta Situation

Earlier this week, a fringe anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox sect (Neturei Karta) demonstrated and called for the “total destruction” of the state, which Israeli media has used to reinforce the message that Israel’s enemies are trying to destabilize it from within.