The campaign for the January 28th Israeli legislative elections was officially began today on public television and radio.
Israeli radio broadcast a series of campaign messages for each party and the electoral video clips were due to be aired for the first time in the evening.
A judge on the electoral committee banned a line from the clip of a far-right party rewriting the national anthem with Arab lyrics calling for the expulsion of Jews, the media reported.
The jingle broadcast by the ultra-nationalist Herut party, which has one deputy in parliament, included the line in Arabic saying: "My friend, let's expel the Jews".
Labour, which is campaigning on a dovish platform while playing up the security credentials of new leader Mr Amram Mitzna, former army commander in the West Bank, attacked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security record.
Mr Mitzna defended his party's plan to build a separation fence along the West Bank - saying that such a protective measure would have stymied suicide bombers.
Labour advocates scrapping all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and removing isolated smaller ones in the West Bank, the target of frequent deadly attacks and the focus of the Palestinian anger.
Mr Sharon, head of the right-wing Likud party, swept to power on a pledge to end the violence in March 2001, but since then the Israeli death toll has topped 700. He has started work on a 350-kilometre security fence, although little has been built so far. AFP