Using security information for political gain: the ruling against the mayor of Ramat Gan

Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Noam Solberg, accepted the appeal filed by Ramat Gan council member Liad Ilani against Mayor Carmel Shama Hacohen, ordering the closure of WhatsApp groups in which the mayor combined emergency updates with election propaganda. In addition, Shama Hacohen was ordered to pay Ilani 18,000 shekels in legal costs. The affair began during the war with Iran, when Shama Hacohen opened private WhatsApp groups with names like "Ramat Gan Emergency Updates" and promised residents security information directly from him. Ilani argued that the mayor exploited security information that came to him by virtue of his public office to accumulate members in groups that also served as election propaganda. Solberg ruled that "the origin of the WhatsApp groups in question is in sin" and criticized that this was not a first violation, noting that "there is room for severity, not leniency."