As the 18 Cheshvan municipal elections near, the atmosphere in many cities is heating up. In Beit Shemesh, the Abutbul campaign filed a police complaint against mayoral candidate Eli Cohen, accusing his campaign of vandalizing elections signs around the city.
Campaign officials of the incumbent, Mayor Moshe Abutbul, accuse the Cohen campaign of vandalizing opponent election signs during recent weeks. They explain they enlisted 100 volunteers who plastered the old area of Beit Shemesh with signs valued in the tens of thousands of NIS. They visited the area and were shocked to find “all” of the signs were torn down or ruined.
The Abutbul campaign has hired attorney Avi Schindler whose staff prepared the case ahead of filing a police complaint, a file that contains photos to back allegations. Schindler is demanding damages amounting to close to 250,000 NIS.
Abutbul officials explain that assumed Cohen would at the very least educate his people as to what constitutes acceptable behavior in a law-abiding country and even more important, to teach campaign supporters that each candidate has the right to fair dialogue without fear of intimidation, violence and vandalism.
Responding to the allegations, officials in the Eli Cohen campaign state the web of lies from the Abutbul campaign does not end. The pressure of possibly losing the election is taking its toll for after hundreds of Eli Cohen signs were destroyed last week, the mayor now tries to complain about actions that were not committed. We urge police to investigate and uncover the truth regarding the false allegations and unjustified complaint that is wasting their time.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
What about all is FAIR IN LOVE & WAR!
This is a classic case of “kol haposel, bemumo posel”. I personally have seen Abutbul supporters tearing down Cohen signs in Ramat Beit Shemesh, including those on private property. One friend, who had a Cohen sign on his porch, woke up to find that someone had the Chutzpa to tear down the Cohen sign and put up an Abutbul sign in its place! Overall, I find the dirty tricks of the Abutbul camp disgusting – and this is just another example of such dirty tricks.
an Israeli Yid
Unfortunatley I have seen the opposite happen with some regularity across RBS A – people ripping down Eli Cohen signs and hanging Abutbol signs – including off private property.
I’m not saying supporters of Eli didn’t do this, but considering the blatant anti-Eli Cohen actions that occurred in public in front of others across the Ramah, this is a pretty pathetic complaint.
#2
i live in bet shemesh and travel throughout the city twice every day on the way to and from work.
i have seen how election banners of all parties have been damaged and torn down over the last few months.
even before a single banner had been raised by Abutbul the fighting between supporters of Cohen, Bloch and Blayish disgusting.
there are parts of the city where every time a Cohen banner went up it would be replaced over-night with a Bloch poster and then visa versa.
even today Blayish and Cohen posters regularly replace each other
this activity is not exclusive to any group. in fact on my street (which is 95% shomer shabbos, but by no means chareidi) signes for abutbul that were hanging on private property were pulled down over shabbos.
all said and done I think the suit is frivelous, but don’t go blaming one candidate for the actions of idiots… all sides have plenty of their own idiot supporters