Funds collected through a public crowdfunding drive to oppose the draft law are now being used as part of a political campaign linked to Naftali Bennett, following the decision of the activist group’s founder to join his party ahead of the upcoming elections.

The movement “Shoulder to Shoulder,” which in recent months spearheaded protests against the draft law and raised more than half a million shekels from supporters, has now become the focus of a growing political controversy. About two weeks ago, the group’s founder, Yonatan Shalev, joined Bennett’s electoral list, and donors who contributed to the cause later discovered that the digital assets created with their donations had effectively been absorbed into Bennett’s campaign operation.

According to a report by Channel 12 News, the funds raised by Shalev and members of “Shoulder to Shoulder” were used, among other things, to build and promote social media pages, including those belonging to Shalev personally and to the organization itself. After Shalev aligned with Bennett’s party, those same pages were formally presented as part of the campaign’s official assets.

As a result, individuals who donated to support a public protest against the draft law—without necessarily intending to support Bennett or his party—found that the initiative they backed was now tied to a partisan political effort. Some donors voiced discomfort with the abrupt transition from a grassroots protest movement to direct political campaigning.

The development has also sparked legal and public scrutiny. The fundraising efforts of Shalev and “Shoulder to Shoulder” were not conducted through a registered nonprofit or formal legal entity, meaning there was no typical external oversight governing how the money would be used. A key question now being raised is whether social media platforms built with public donations, and later used in a party campaign, could constitute an improper political contribution or benefit.

Bennett’s associates have strongly pushed back against the claims. A statement from the “Together” party said: “Shoulder to Shoulder is a social initiative that is not a nonprofit organization, which promoted equality in sharing the burden. Its members launched a crowdfunding campaign to fight the draft evasion law. Recently, the members of the organization made a courageous decision to enter politics in order to give a voice to young people in the country. Any claim of an ‘improper contribution’ is completely without factual or legal basis.”

{Matzav.com}