The Israeli newspaper Calcalist revealed financial details of the Likud Party in recent years, highlighting the spending of huge sums in areas that raise questions.
The Calcalist report – which was based on official documents submitted to the state comptroller – showed a pattern of transferring funds to companies and individuals linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which opens the door to suspicions of corruption and exploitation of public funds, according to the newspaper.
Close companies and people
According to the report, Likud paid about 200,000 shekels ($52,000) to the “Presentation Shevuk” company, owned by Israelis Einhorn and Yonatan Urich, who are close to Netanyahu and involved in the “leaked documents” case.
The company received this money in exchange for producing propaganda video content during the elections.
It is noteworthy that Einhorn currently lives abroad, and is wanted for investigation on charges of leaking information to the German newspaper “Bild,” and Urich is also under investigation because of his connection to the case.
The report revealed that 123,000 shekels ($32,000) had been allocated to the “Direct Vols” company, owned by Shlomo Filber, the former state witness in Netanyahu’s corruption cases, to carry out opinion polls.
According to Calcalist, this company benefited greatly from Likud’s budget, spending hundreds of thousands of shekels on opinion polls it conducted.
What is controversial is that the Public Prosecution canceled the state witness agreement with Filber in 2024, which increases doubts about the relationship between him and the party, according to the newspaper.
Funding field activities
The report stated that Likud paid 200,000 shekels ($52,000) to Yonatan Achia – an extreme right-wing activist who supports the annexation of the West Bank – to carry out what was described as a “field campaign.”
Additional sums were also paid to other activists involved in controversial activities, such as attacks on judicial and security figures in Israel.
The report revealed that 654,000 shekels ($171,000) were spent on street advertising during the election period, including 80,000 shekels ($21,000) for advertising campaigns on Facebook.
Payments were also made to magazines and media sites loyal to the party, and one of these entities is the magazine “Hakol Politika”, which received 100,000 shekels ($26,000) since 2019.
The report monitored a significant increase in legal expenses, doubling from 2.4 million shekels ($627,000) in 2022 to 4 million shekels ($1.04 million) in 2023.
This increase has raised questions about the legality of these expenses, especially since they coincided with Netanyahu’s trials in corruption cases.
Despite recording a surplus of 14.6 million shekels ($3.8 million) in 2023, the report showed that the party suffered a deficit of 2.5 million shekels ($653,000) in 2022.
The report indicated that revenues – which amounted to 46.6 million shekels ($12.2 million) in 2023 – came mainly from state funding and membership fees, which raises concerns about the exploitation of public money to support personal and political interests, according to observers.