{"id":11228,"date":"2026-10-25T05:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=11228"},"modified":"2026-10-25T05:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:38:22","slug":"bots-deepfakes-and-surveillance-israels-election-goes-to-war-online-israel-election-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=11228","title":{"rendered":"Bots, deepfakes and surveillance: Israel\u2019s election goes to war online | Israel Election 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Polls show the blocs linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition, led by former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, are locked in a virtual tie before Tuesday\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n

Efforts to mobilise supporters, win voters and attack opponents are being played out online through a series of social media advertisements and doctored AI videos. Many of these paint a bleak vision, the outcome depending on whether the party is on the right or centre, of Israel if their rivals win.<\/p>\n

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On Thursday, the Israeli liberal daily Haaretz reported that dozens of online bots created to undermine the Iranian government were being repurposed to spread campaign propaganda supporting Netanyahu and his Likud party, and warn voters of the dangers posed by Eisenkot and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who make up part of the opposition bloc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both camps are pushing AI-generated and deepfake videos on X. Several of them show Netanyahu confronting his alleged failings before the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023; others show the opposition being sympathetic to Arab parties<\/a> (those representing the Palestinian citizens of Israel) which have been perceived by many as kingmakers in the coming election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re competing against parties with far greater budgets and technological resources, particularly the Likud,\u201d Mauricio Lapchik, director of the Arab-dominated Joint List Hebrew-language campaign, said. \u201cThe use of technology is clearly deepening an already unequal playing field \u2026 We may not have the same resources, but we are convinced that our message matters more than the artificial technology behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Electoral weapons systems<\/h2>\n

Significant resources have been used by the Israeli right against the left-wing Joint List \u2013 an alliance of Hadash, Balad and Ta\u2019al \u2013 and Ra\u2019am, also known as the United Arab List. Palestinian citizens of Israel generally support one of these two blocs, and all the parties have faced legal challenges before the parliamentary election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likud were looking to use Elector, an app that tracks voter turnout on election day, but were restricted by the Central Elections Committee due to privacy concerns. They will instead use a new app named Victory 26.<\/em> Unlike Elector, this does not reveal the identities of voters but would allow Likud activists and officials to determine which areas have the lowest turnout, manually take the names of people who have cast their votes, and then target those who have not yet.<\/p>\n

Likud is encouraging supporters and potential sympathisers to download and use the app on election day, according to Haaretz.<\/p>\n

This app could play a crucial role in the election, which will likely be determined by voter turnout.<\/p>\n

\u201cElector and similar programmes are very basic compared to what the Israeli military is capable of now,\u201d Sebastian Ben Daniel, a doctoral researcher into algorithms, computability, and AI, said. \u201cIsrael has the perfect laboratory with which to develop this kind of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privacy issues<\/a> are a particular concern for the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the population and whose political activity is already heavily monitored.<\/p>\n

\"An
An Israeli soldier stands under a surveillance camera at a checkpoint in the flashpoint Palestinian city of Hebron. Israel\u2019s army has deployed a sweeping personal data collection programme using facial recognition technology against Palestinians in parts of the occupied West Bank [File: Hazem Bader\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Slight gains\/fierce fight<\/h2>\n

In recent weeks, Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich caused uproar when he released an AI video showing the Supreme Court\u2019s president, a justice and the attorney general \u2013 all frequent targets of the far-right government who have sought to shake off judicial oversight \u2013 being violently dragged from an antigovernment protest.<\/p>\n

In another AI video shared by Netanyahu earlier this year, his key political rival Eisenkot is seen running towards an AI figure who many believe resembled his son, Gal, who was killed while taking part in the genocide on Gaza, before passing him entirely and embracing the head of the Arab Ra\u2019am party, Mansour Abbas.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s camp later said they did not intend the figure to mirror Eisenkot\u2019s son, who wears a T-shirt saying \u201cIsrael\u2019s Unity\u201d in Hebrew, and replaced the male character with a female one.<\/p>\n

There has also been heavy use of AI to demonise Palestinian citizens of Israel, with a video shared by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir portraying the people of Gaza as donkeys, and \u201cherding\u201d them to Paris. Ben-Gvir has called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza via \u201cvoluntary emigration\u201d and frequently targets Palestinians in his political stunts, such as humiliating detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has also been a heavy use of bots by Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir\u2019s campaign to amplify their political messaging, according to numerous accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe online campaign has been especially violent. AI, algorithms and data management are all utilised to cement what we call \u2018affective polarisation\u2019,\u201d Roi Zur a lecturer at Essex University and specialist in voting behaviour and election strategies, told Al Jazeera. This term is used by political scientists to refer to the entrenchment of political blocs and an increased animosity towards the opposing side.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffective polarisation targets people at the fringe, who might be thinking of voting for a party in an opposing bloc, and bring them back into the fold.\u201d As this election will likely be determined by the success of the smaller parties and voter turnout in general, this is a pertinent point.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurnout and management of the parties will be essential. If you look at large secular cities, such as Tel Aviv or Haifa, turnout is typically only 60 percent,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you compare that to cities and towns with a large Haredi (ultra -Orthodox) population, such as Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, the turnout is around 80 to 85 percent, so a large part of the campaigning is also to get people out to vote by threatening them with the \u2018other\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Polls show the blocs linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition, led by former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, are locked in a virtual tie before Tuesday\u2019s general election. Efforts to mobilise supporters, win voters and attack opponents are being played out online through a series of social media advertisements and doctored…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t