In the final days before Israel's tightly contested vote, the country's campaigns have slipped into a harsher register, where machine-made images and personal wounds are being pressed into service as political weapons. Two blocs stand nearly level, and into that balance have come videos of imagined enemies, posters that frame rivals as threats to the nation, and attacks on people whose children were lost in the wars that followed the October 2023 attack. It is an old pattern in new form: the grief of ordinary families has always been at risk of becoming material for politics, and the question
Israeli Election Campaign Descends Into AI-Fuelled Smears, with Bereaved Families Drawn In
Bereaved candidates and hostage relatives, including Laly Derai, have faced harassment, threats of withdrawal and exploitation of their children's and sons' deaths in campaign messaging.
Even grief has become campaign material
Mark
Why is this campaign drawing attention beyond the usual rough politics?
Mimi
Because the attacks are reaching into grief. Laly Derai lost her son in Gaza in 2024, and the smears against her invoke his death and say she betrays his memory.
Mark
And AI is central to this?
Mimi
It's a main amplifier. Eisenkot's birthday video for Netanyahu and Netanyahu's July clip of Eisenkot both used AI-generated scenes.
Luke
Let's separate what's established. The July clip drew outrage over claims the young man was made to resemble Eisenkot's late son. Netanyahu's party denied that. The reporting doesn't settle it.
Mimi
Fair. What's recorded is the claim, the denial, and Eisenkot's reaction, that he felt deep contempt after watching it.
Mark
What about the fears around Arab-Israeli parties?
Mimi
Likud's clips and billboards, like "The Right or Palestine," target a possible opposition coalition including them. Thair Abu Ras calls it incitement, though that is one analyst's characterization.
Luke
Same caution on the "monkey" remark. It was said by a Channel 14 commentator, and the source notes it isn't necessarily a slur in Hebrew. Netanyahu condemned it too.
Mark
Who else is caught up in it?
Mimi
Hostage families. A Likud-supporter Facebook page, unofficial, pitted Talik Gvili against Einav Zangauker with the caption "It is us or them."
Luke
Worth stressing it's an unofficial page, so we can't say the party itself made it. And we don't know yet how any of this moves voters.
Il Polso
- Two blocs are neck and neck, and every day of campaigning raises the stakes for who will hold power.
- AI-generated videos of enemies, fake hugs, and masked rivals are flooding social media and drawing outrage from both sides.
- Bereaved candidates like Laly Derai are facing threats, calls to withdraw, and posters on the roads near their children's school buses.
- Parties are pressing on with sharper messaging, while condemnation of the 'monkey' remark and the incitement claims shows a campaign straining toward its breaking point.
- Voters head to the polls with trust in the process and in the result now very much in question.
In the final days before Israel's tightly contested vote, the country's campaigns have slipped into a harsher register, where machine-made images and personal wounds are being pressed into service as political weapons. Two blocs stand nearly level, and into that balance have come videos of imagined enemies, posters that frame rivals as threats to the nation, and attacks on people whose children were lost in the wars that followed the October 2023 attack. It is an old pattern in new form: the grief of ordinary families has always been at risk of becoming material for politics, and the question now is whether a democracy can absorb such tools without losing its footing in what its citizens believe to be true.
On Wednesday, Gadi Eisenkot posted a birthday video for Benjamin Netanyahu on X, marking the prime minister's 77th birthday. Every figure in it was AI-generated, including a Hamas militant speaking from a tunnel and an imagined Iranian supreme leader offering Netanyahu a bomb as a gift. It was one moment in a campaign that has grown deeply personal in the days before Tuesday's vote, with both blocs nearly level in the polls.
Netanyahu's side has used the same tools. A July clip showed Eisenkot rejecting a hug from a young man made to resemble his son, who was killed in Gaza in 2023, a claim the party denies. Other videos stoke fear of an opposition that includes Arab-Israeli parties, and billboards across the country pair the words "The Right or Palestine" with the faces of Arab-Israeli politicians. Thair Abu Ras of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute called much of it incitement. A commentator on Channel 14 also called Eisenkot "a monkey," a remark condemned even by Netanyahu.
Grief has offered no shelter. Laly Derai, whose son died fighting in Gaza in 2024, is running for the new far-right Amcha Israel party. She describes a coordinated smear campaign that invokes her son's death, along with calls at all hours, cruel online comments, and posters asking her to step aside "so as not to put the country in danger." She says the attacks have only hardened her resolve.
Hostage families have also been drawn in. An unofficial Likud Facebook page set two mothers of former hostages against each other under the caption "It is us or them." With the vote so evenly matched, observers will be watching whether these tactics change turnout and whether the public still trusts the outcome.
On Wednesday, Gadi Eisenkot posted a birthday video for Benjamin Netanyahu on X. It marked the prime minister's 77th birthday, and it was populated entirely by AI-generated characters. One was a Hamas member speaking from a tunnel. "What can we wish for the person who has been protecting us for 20 years?" the militant asks, a nod to the theory that Netanyahu deliberately helped Hamas stay in power in Gaza, a charge he vehemently denies. Next comes an AI depiction of Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who tells Netanyahu that after one more round without victory he will make him a bomb as a present.
The video is one piece of a campaign that has turned sharply personal days before Tuesday's vote. Polls show Netanyahu's bloc neck and neck with the one led by Eisenkot, his main centre-right rival. A flood of AI-generated images on social media is feeding the attacks, as candidates and activists try to paint opponents as weak, untrustworthy or harmful to the country, leaning on stereotypes and fears.
Netanyahu's side has used the same tools. In July, he posted a video showing Eisenkot refusing a hug from a young man in a T-shirt reading "Israel unity" and embracing Arab-Israeli candidate Mansour Abbas instead. Outrage followed over claims that the young man had been made to resemble Eisenkot's son, who was killed fighting in Gaza in 2023. Netanyahu's party denied this. Eisenkot told Channel 13 that watching the clip left him with deep contempt for Netanyahu and his entourage.
Throughout the campaign, Netanyahu's camp has used AI to stoke fear of a possible opposition coalition that includes Arab-Israeli parties. Clips show Jewish opposition politicians pulling off masks to reveal Arab-Israeli candidates underneath, and Arabs looming over what looks like a crumbling parliament building. Likud billboards reading "The Right or Palestine" now stand across the country beside the faces of Arab-Israeli politicians.
Thair Abu Ras, head of the Forum for Regional Thinking at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, called it incitement, especially from Netanyahu's camp. He told AFP that the right wing sees an Arab party in a coalition as illegitimate and is trying to impose that view on the Eisenkot coalition too.
Comments about Eisenkot, the son of Moroccan Jews, have also drawn alarm. This month a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 called him "a monkey." The word is not necessarily a racial slur in Hebrew, but the remark was widely condemned by opposition politicians and by Netanyahu himself.
This is the first election since Hamas's October 2023 attack, and a number of candidates are people whose lives were upended that day or in the wars that followed. Grief has not shielded them. Laly Derai, whose son was killed fighting in Gaza in 2024, is running for Amcha Israel, a new far-right party that advocates universal conscription, an increasingly contentious issue because of exemptions for religious students. She says she has faced a coordinated smear campaign that has at times invoked her son's death and accused her of betraying his memory. Posters near the West Bank settlement where she lives call on her to withdraw so as not to "put the country in danger."
Derai told AFP the attacks are trying to break her but have strengthened her resolve to enter politics and end hate-filled rhetoric. She told public broadcaster KAN of phone calls at all hours, disgusting social media comments, and signs posted in her towns, including near her children's school buses.
Relatives of hostages once held by Hamas have been pulled in as well. On Tuesday, an unofficial Facebook page for Likud supporters posted an image setting two mothers of former hostages against each other. Likud candidate Talik Gvili appears calm before an Israeli flag, while Einav Zangauker, a vocal Netanyahu critic, looks frenzied among protesters tinted red. The caption reads: "It is us or them." With the blocs so evenly matched, how these tactics affect turnout and trust in the result will be watched closely.
Citazioni salienti
They're trying to break me, but this campaign has reinforced my decision to enter politics to end this hate-filled rhetoric.— Laly Derai, Amcha Israel candidate, to AFP
It's incitement, especially from Prime Minister Netanyahu's camp.— Thair Abu Ras, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
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