As reported on the Shopping Mekomi Facebook page:
The continue to make a joke of the law! The newspaper "Chadash" is operating with no license, against the law, and continues to be funded by, among others, advertisements from City Hall, meaning, public funds. A request was sent today to the Interior Minister to shut down the newspaper. The mayor and the professional staff have been instructed not to advertise in the newspaper and to enforce this directive.
After a clarification performed by the Ministry of Interior it turns out that "Chadash Bet Shemesh", a local Charedi newspaper of Bet Shemesh, has no license. As has been publicized before, the newspapers administration has refused, during the election period, to publish election material for the candidate Eli Cohen. They even admitted to this and explained their reasoning: "The Chadash newspaper is the newspaper of the Charedi public of Bet Shemesh. Because all the Gedolei Yisroel and righteous men of the generation have expressed their definitive support for Moshe Abutbol for mayor, we will not agree to publish against that statement."
Eli Cohen's lawyer, Ariel Nissim, claims that this is a clear violation of the election laws and has requested that it should be investigated whether the newspaper is even operating with a license, as the law demands. This is the time to remind you that according to Paragraph 4 of the Newspaper Ordinance establishes that: One is not allowed to print or publish any newspaper in Israel unless its owners first receive a license signed by the person appointed over the district on the form along with the first one for this order.
Today, Thursday February 20, Inbar Golshani, the director of the newspaper division of the Ministry of Interior, stated that the Ministry of Interior has no documentation of a license issued for the Chadash newspaper. Meaning, the Chadash newspaper is operating with no license.
This is the place to point out, that the Newspaper Ordinance establishes serious criminal sanctions - imprisonment up to 6 months and a fine for "the person who prints or publishes a newspaper prior to receiving a license for him or any other agent or who permits its printing or publication, in addition to sanctions defined in that paragraph, and the court is empowered to order him detained and to confiscate all copies of the paper that had been printed.
Upon receiving the statement from the Ministry of Interior, Adv. Ariel Nissim turned to the Minister of Interior, MK Gideon Saar, with a clear request "to immediately turn to the Chadash newspaper administration and demand an immediate stop to the printing of the newspaper, and even more so when the newspaper is breaking the law of the State of Israel regarding election material, this matter is so much more important, for in Bet Shemesh there will be in the near future re-elections as ordered by the courts.
Adv. Nissim informed Chadash regarding the information received from the Ministry of Interior: You are requested to immediately cease printing or publishing the Chadash newspaper.
As wellAdv. Nissim turned to the mayor, Moshe Abutbol, to the legal counsel of the City of Bet Shemesh Adv. Miki Gastwirth, the Comptroller of the city Yaakov Dahan: you are requested to instruct all relevant parties in City Hall of Bet Shemesh to immediately refrain from advertising or make any other use of Chadash newspaper and immediately stop any other communication with the newspaper.
When turning to the mayor, Adv. Nissim added: you should know, the public sees you as directly and personally responsible for any expense passed to the newspaper that is operating illegally with no license, from the time you receive this letter. As well, it is appropriate that a mayor of a city in Israel who is entrusted with enforcement of the law and of the order in his city, will not assist and give his money to those operating against the law and will not use the services of the newspaper that has no license, even just for appearances sake. So, it does not make sense that a mayor will fund a newspaper with no legal license, with the knowledge that lacking a license is a criminal offense.
Shopping Mekomi turned to Chadash for a response, but has not yet received one at this point in time.
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