(via Israel Hayom). The Tzipi Livni-led Hatnu's party is illegally tapping into Kadima's databases to bolster support for its campaign efforts, officials in Kadima charged on Monday.
Kadima made the claim after several of its members and members of the Labor party reported receiving a recorded phone message by Livni calling for support of Hatnu'a, despite never signing up as supporters of the party.
According to Kadima legal advisers, Livni will have broken three laws if she is discovered to have tapped into Kadima's membership database to bolster support for her party: namely, utilizing a registration database for reasons unrelated to its creation, breach of confidentiality, and violation of privacy.
In addition, the Hatnuah campaign has employed two pictures of Livni that Kadima had previously used in the 2009 election, when Livni was first on the Kadima list. One picture is the airbrushed, professional photograph of Livni, while the other is an illustrated likeness of the Hatnuah leader.
Kadima has charged that these two photographs both belong to and were purchased by Livni's former party, and that Livni cannot legally use them in Hatnuah's campaign. Such usage constitutes copyright infringement, officials in Kadima said.
Livni's Facebook page displayed the photograph Kadima is claiming the rights to as her official profile picture until Monday, when it switched it out for a different portrait — albeit of lesser quality. Beneath the picture, Livni's campaign team wrote the caption: "Four years have passed from campaign to campaign. I have grown up, and as you can see, we have switched photographs. We stand behind presenting reality as it is, without embellishment."
"After driving Kadima into huge debts and dividing the party, Livni continues to destroy the party she once headed, while at the same time using campaign materials that belong to Kadima without permission," a Kadima official said on Monday.
"Hatnuah is careful to follow the law; this is easy to observe," Hatnuah's campaign said in response to allegations against the party. "Hatnuah does not use databases belonging to the two other parties. Kadima and Labor are complaining following the intensifying desertion of their supporters in the last few weeks."