You are connecting from Lake Geneva Public Library, please login or register to take advantage of your institution's Ground News Plan.
Published 2 days ago • loading... • Updated 12 hours ago
Central Elections C’ttee disqualifies Arab parties
The committee said the bans rest on claims that the parties and candidates rejected Israel’s Jewish and democratic character or backed armed struggle.
On Wednesday, Israel's Central Elections Committee voted 31-4 to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh from the October 27 election, accepting claims that he supported armed struggle against Israel by a terrorist organization.
The petition focused on an October 8, 2023, article where Abu Shehadeh described the Hamas-led massacre as an "important historic event." Under Israel's Basic Laws, candidates supporting armed struggle against the state are barred from the Knesset.
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, the committee chairman, broke with decades of precedent to vote for Abu Shehadeh's disqualification, stating he found the evidence "sufficiently compelling" to warrant departing from his customary neutrality.
Separate votes on Wednesday resulted in the disqualification of the Joint List and Ra'am following petitions from multiple parties. These committee decisions are not final and require Supreme Court approval to take effect.
Legal challenges to these exclusions are expected to reach the Supreme Court next week. Adalah, the legal center representing the parties, announced it will contest the committee's votes during judicial review.
Just over a month before the election in Israel, the election committee ruled out all Arab parties. Although the Supreme Court could overturn the decision, political damage could remain.
The Central Electoral Committee has banned predominantly Arab parties from participating in the parliamentary election, and the Supreme Court can cancel this.