Lapid slams campaign funding legislation

TV personality-turned-political hopeful: Ministerial committee-approved bill "cowardly and shameless."

By LAHAV HARKOV
yair lapid 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
yair lapid 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Columnist, former television personality and new politician Yair Lapid said the government is scared of him, after the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill on Sunday that would require him to declare the sources of his campaign.
“It is nice that so many old-school politicians decided to get together and prove to the public that everything I have been saying about them is right,” Lapid wrote on his Facebook wall. “It is one thing to be a coward, but another to be shameless. They could at least hide their fear.”
According to the aspiring politician, the new bill proves that the system of government must be changed to “get rid of old, despicable politics.”
Nine ministers voted in favor of the measure, with Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin, Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor and Government Services Minister Michael Eitan opposed.
Knesset House Committee Chairman Yariv Levin (Likud) and MKs Otniel Schneller (Kadima) and Daniel Ben- Simon (Labor) submitted the legislation, which would require any person or group that declares “in writing or in speech, clearly or through behavior” an intention to run for a Knesset seat without joining an existing party to officially form a new party within two weeks of the declaration, or pay a NIS 150,000 fine.
The new party would then have to comply with campaign- finance laws, and reveal the sources of its funding.
Levin explained that the purpose of the bill is to ensure maximum transparency in elections campaigns.
“Lapid should show minimal public fairness and reveal the sources of his funding even before this bill passes,” the Likud MK said.
According to Levin, the public has the right to know “where the money is from,” a twist on Lapid’s campaign slogan “Where is the money?”