The Joint List has expressed outrage following the report in Maariv that the ballot slips for the upcoming March 17 elections are to be printed in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. “It’s clear that Netanyahu’s government is a settlements government,” a statement issued by the Joint List said. “Are there no printing businesses within the Green Line?”

In response to the story in Maariv, the Central Election Committee confirmed that Israphot Ltd., a printing house located in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, has won the tender to print all the ballots to be used on Election Day. The ballots are slips of paper on which the name of each party and the letters representing it are printed. “They’re Israeli; there’s an Israeli flag there,” a committee spokesperson said of Israphot.

“Peace Now” Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheim said that only in this case does the end – an election – justify the means i.e., using a product from a settlement in the occupied territories. Nevertheless, he added, “there is something absurd in the fact that the printing house producing the ballots for a democratic election is located in a place in which there is no democracy and there is still a regime of occupation.”