On the morning of the 24th Knesset election day, which took place on March 23, 2021, about an hour and a half after the polls opened, the Im Tirtzu movement published posts on social media stating that the Elections Committee's election purity inspectors' application was broken and not working across the country.
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In light of this, the Central Elections Committee issued two statements stating that there was no malfunction in the app, and that it was "a fake news campaign and a continuation of 'If You Want''s' attempts to undermine public trust in the results and the Elections Committee.".
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In light of this statement, the Im Tirtzu movement filed a defamation lawsuit against the Elections Committee.
After a mediation process between the parties, the Central Elections Committee today published a "clarification notice" - which stated:
""The committee wishes to clarify that after the end of the elections, the committee conducted another examination regarding the manner in which the application was operated, which revealed that some of the election purity inspectors were unable to connect to the application, but they submitted reports to the Election Committee through other means.
""In light of the above, the Elections Committee regrets the inaccuracy in the publications and the content contained therein.".
The law firm that represented the Im Tirtzu movement in the legal proceedings said in response: "The Im Tirtzu movement works to promote the purity of elections in Israel. In this framework, the movement warned of flaws and malfunctions that occurred in the committee's conduct.
""Instead of apologizing, working to correct the faults, and thanking Um Tirtzu, as would be expected from a public body striving for proper conduct, the committee chose, in a puzzling way, to deny Um Tirtzu's justified claims, and added insult to injury and defamed the movement's good name. In response, Um Tirtzu turned to the Elections Committee demanding an apology.".
'"The Elections Committee rejected her application and left her no choice but to file a lawsuit against her in court. Only after a hearing before a judge was the Elections Committee forced to apologize for the unfortunate incident. It's a shame about the cumbersome process, but better late than never. Let's hope for more appropriate conduct in the future.",
