KKL-JNF Chairman against Likud: "They are afraid - I will not stop talking"

KKL-JNF Chairman Eyal Ostrinsky attacked the Likud party this Thursday, following the party's appeal to the State Comptroller claiming that his Facebook statements supporting Gadi Eisenkot and the "Yashar!" party constitute an "illegal contribution" by KKL-JNF to the election campaign.

"Well, the Likud movement's parade of madness continues," Ostrinsky wrote in a post published on Facebook under the title "They are afraid - 2."

According to him, after they previously tried to claim that he is a "public official" who cannot express himself — "an attempt that did not succeed" — now Likud claims that his political statements are an illegal contribution. "They went further and turned to the State Comptroller to urgently check the claims and make findings," he wrote.

Ostrinsky rejected the claims and said he has no intention of stopping the expression of his views:

"I don't like to say it, but it's not even worthy of a serious response. It is one of the most baseless and delusional claims I have ever encountered in my life. Of course, it has no chance of holding up, and I have no intention of stopping talking and saying what I think the public must hear — that Israel needs deep change and that Gadi Eisenkot is the right person to lead the change and the one Israel needs to be its Prime Minister."

The KKL-JNF Chairman emphasized that his activity on social networks is not funded by the organization's money. "I am proud of the fact that, unlike previous chairmen, I, as KKL-JNF Chairman, do not use public funds to finance my activity on social networks and do not operate a public page funded by the organization's money," he wrote. According to him, he uses his personal platform, which is not funded by KKL-JNF, also to present the organization's activity.

Ostrinsky added that he does not express political or partisan views on the official platforms of KKL-JNF. "I emphasize again that on no official platform of KKL-JNF — its official pages on social networks, its website, etc., in no publication of KKL-JNF and on no official stage of KKL-JNF — do I express political partisan views. Therefore, these claims, which are of course baseless and delusional as mentioned, are rejected entirely."

However, Ostrinsky clarified that he himself is a political person and noted that he was elected to the position of KKL-JNF Chairman on behalf of the liberal bloc in the Zionist Congress. According to him, the Congress is a political body whose representatives are elected from all over the Jewish world, and he himself was elected to the position within the framework of agreements between the Congress factions, including three factions representing Likud.