AI videos and voter tracking shape Israel’s closely fought election

Israel’s election campaign is unfolding across social media as parties deploy artificial intelligence, online bots and voter tracking tools ahead of Tuesday’s general election. Polls put the bloc associated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu virtually level with the opposition led by former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, making turnout and the performance of smaller parties potentially decisive.

Both camps have circulated AI-generated and deepfake videos on X, often presenting alarming depictions of what an opponent’s victory would mean. Some portray Netanyahu confronting alleged failures before the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Others depict opposition politicians as sympathetic to Arab parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, which many regard as potential kingmakers. Haaretz reported on Thursday that dozens of bots originally created to undermine Iran’s government were being redirected to promote Netanyahu and Likud while attacking Eisenkot and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The right has devoted significant resources to campaigning against the Joint List, the left-wing alliance of Hadash, Balad and Ta’al, and Ra’am, also called the United Arab List. Palestinian citizens of Israel generally support one of these two groupings, whose constituent parties have faced legal challenges before the election. Mauricio Lapchik, who directs the Joint List’s Hebrew-language campaign, said better-funded rivals, particularly Likud, enjoyed a technological advantage that was widening existing inequalities.

Turnout technology is another part of the contest. Privacy concerns prompted the Central Elections Committee to restrict Likud’s planned use of Elector, an application for tracking election-day participation. The party will instead use Victory 26, which does not disclose voters’ identities but allows activists and officials to identify low-turnout areas, manually record who has voted and target those who have not. According to Haaretz, Likud is urging supporters and potential sympathisers to download it. Privacy is a particular concern for Palestinian citizens, about 20 percent of Israel’s population, whose political activity is already closely monitored.

Several AI videos have provoked controversy. In recent weeks, Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich released one depicting the Supreme Court president, a justice and the attorney general being forcibly removed from an antigovernment demonstration. The officials have been frequent targets of the far-right government as it has sought to loosen judicial oversight.

A video shared by Netanyahu earlier this year showed Eisenkot running towards a male figure before passing him to embrace Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas. Many believed the figure resembled Eisenkot’s son Gal, who was killed while participating in military operations in Gaza. Netanyahu’s camp denied intending that resemblance and subsequently replaced the male figure with a female character.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also shared an AI video depicting Gaza’s residents as donkeys being herded to Paris. Ben-Gvir has advocated removing Palestinians from Gaza through what he calls voluntary emigration. Numerous accounts have also described extensive use of bots by his campaign and Netanyahu’s to amplify political messages.

Roi Zur, an Essex University lecturer specialising in voting behaviour and election strategies, told Al Jazeera that these methods deepen hostility between political camps and discourage voters from crossing between them. He said turnout and party organisation would be crucial, contrasting participation of about 60 percent in large secular cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa with roughly 80 to 85 percent in cities and towns with large ultra-Orthodox populations, including Jerusalem and Bnei Brak.