Benjamin Netanyahu sued for using Jordan hip-hop song in Likud campaign video featuring Isis
A Jordanian hip-hop group is suing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for using one of its songs in a campaign clip for Israel's general elections next month.
The group Torabyeh ("Of the soil") took legal action with the Haifa District Court, claiming that their song Ghorbah ("Alienation") had been used without permission in the right-wing ruling Likud campaign, Reuters reported.
"They were stunned by Likud's shamelessness and outright theft," Israel-based Iyad Jubran, the group's lawyer, said.
Netanyahu used the song in the 40-second video entitled Us Or Them, Isis's Version, which has been published on his YouTube channel.
The clip shows four men in the Islamic State (Isis) black-clad dress driving across the desert. Then, the driver asks a man in the car next to them in Arabic-intonated Hebrew: "How do we get to Jerusalem, brother?" to which the driver, an Israeli man, replies: "Turn left".
The founder of the hip-hop group, Firas Shehadeh, told Reuters that he was shocked after seeing the video. "We are against Isis and against Israel," he said.
According to the court petition, Torabyeh says the clip creates the impression they support IS which could have dangerous ramifications for them, and that its use in the campaign of an Israeli right-wing party could deter their fans, Reuters reported.
Torabyeh is made up of four members, three of them descendants of Palestinian refugees.
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