Israel’s election campaign has taken an increasingly bitter turn, with political candidates and their supporters engaging in personal attacks, inflammatory rhetoric and the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content to discredit opponents ahead of the polls.
The campaign has reportedly targeted candidates’ personal lives, family relationships and traumatic experiences, including the loss of loved ones in the wars that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
According to an AFP report, AI-generated images and videos have flooded social media as rival political camps seek to portray their opponents as weak, untrustworthy or a threat to national security.
With the election scheduled for Tuesday, opinion polls indicate a close contest between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political bloc and that of his main centre-right rival, Gadi Eisenkot.
Eisenkot recently posted an AI-generated video on X to mark Netanyahu’s 77th birthday. The video featured fictional characters, including a Hamas militant questioning the Israeli prime minister’s record in dealing with the group.
Another AI-generated character, depicted as Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a threatening message to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s camp has also used AI-generated content to attack Eisenkot. In July, a video shared by the prime minister depicted Eisenkot rejecting an embrace from a young man wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Israel unity” before embracing Arab-Israeli politician Mansour Abbas.
The video sparked widespread outrage amid allegations that the young man resembled Eisenkot’s son, who was killed fighting in Gaza in 2023. Netanyahu’s party denied the allegation.
Eisenkot later expressed deep contempt for Netanyahu and his associates over the video.
Netanyahu’s supporters have also circulated AI-generated clips portraying a possible opposition coalition involving Arab-Israeli parties as a threat to Israel. Billboards bearing the slogan “The Right or Palestine,” alongside images of opposition politicians, have appeared in different parts of the country.
Thair Abu Ras, head of the Forum for Regional Thinking at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, accused Netanyahu’s camp of incitement, arguing that the campaign sought to reinforce opposition to the participation of Arab parties in a governing coalition.
Meanwhile, Eisenkot, whose parents are Moroccan Jews, has faced insulting remarks, including being described as “a monkey” by a commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station. The comment attracted widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and Netanyahu himself, although the expression is not necessarily a racial slur in Hebrew.
The election, the first since Hamas’s October 2023 attack, has also seen candidates whose lives were transformed by the conflict subjected to personal attacks.
Laly Derai, whose son was killed fighting in Gaza in 2024, is contesting the election under the newly formed far-right Amcha Israel party, which advocates universal military conscription.
Derai said she had faced a coordinated smear campaign that included accusations that her political activities betrayed her son’s memory.
Posters urging her to withdraw from the race have appeared near her settlement in the occupied West Bank, warning that her candidacy could put the country in danger.
She said the attacks had strengthened her determination to enter politics and challenge what she described as hate-filled rhetoric.
Derai also disclosed that she had received disturbing telephone calls and offensive social media messages, while posters targeting her were placed in communities near her children’s school buses.
Relatives of former hostages held by Hamas have also become targets of political attacks.
An unofficial Facebook page supporting Netanyahu’s Likud party recently shared an image contrasting Likud candidate Talik Gvili, the mother of a former hostage, with Einav Zangauker, another mother who has been a vocal critic of the prime minister.
The image portrayed Gvili as calm against the backdrop of an Israeli flag, while Zangauker appeared distressed amid protesters. The caption read, “It is us or them.”
The developments underscore the growing hostility surrounding Israel’s election, with the increasing use of AI-generated political content and attacks on candidates’ personal experiences raising concerns about the tone of campaigning and its influence on voters.
