Israel election committee bars Arab party lists, MKs from October vote

Israel’s Central Elections Committee has voted to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, the United Arab List (UAL), the Joint List and Hadash MK Ofer Cassif from running in the 27 October election.

The decisions are not final and must be approved by the Supreme Court, which has overturned most such disqualifications in previous elections.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee is made up of lawmakers, with seats allocated to parties based on their share of the vote in the general election.

Abu Shehadeh

The committee said Abu Shehadeh had supported armed struggle by an enemy state or "terrorist organisation" against Israel and rejected Israel’s existence as a Jewish and "democratic state".

The petition against Abu Shehadeh was filed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party. It cited an article the Balad chairman published a day after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in southern Israel, in which he described the attack as "an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically".

Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza since then has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and devastated much of the enclave.

Abu Shehadeh said in a video statement that he would not back down.

"This development will not scare us," he said. "Racists are afraid of equality, and Ben Gvir and Netanyahu are afraid of the Arab vote in this electoral battle".

Adalah director Hassan Jabareen argued that the claim Abu Shehadeh supported armed struggle contradicted his decades of public and parliamentary activity. He said the article cited by petitioners contained no call for violence and instead called for a political solution.

United Arab List and Joint List

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and the Choose Life Forum filed petitions against UAL.

Adalah attorney Suhad Bishara said the petitions against UAL relied on old evidence that had already been reviewed by Israel’s attorney general and security services, which she said had reached conclusions at odds with the claims made by the petitioners.

In 2021, UAL joined a short-lived coalition that ended Netanyahu’s 12-year run as prime minister.

The committee also voted to disqualify the Joint List, which includes Hadash and Balad and represents large sections of Israel’s Palestinian population - descendants of those who remained in Israel after it was created in 1948.

Adalah said the motion against the Joint List relied largely on outdated material, including bills from previous parliaments and positions that had already been examined by Israeli courts. It argued that the motion did not present the "critical mass" of evidence required under Supreme Court precedent.

A separate motion to disqualify Balad as a party was rejected on procedural grounds, according to Adalah, which represented the party before the committee.

Cassif

Cassif’s disqualification followed a petition filed by Likud and was based on the same grounds cited against the other candidates and lists.

A vocal critic of Israel’s war on Gaza, Cassif rejected the allegations during the hearing, calling them "politically motivated". He described the coalition’s portrayal of his opposition to government policy as "support for the enemy, disloyalty and harm to the state" as a "blatant distortion of reality".

Adalah attorney Ariel Remez said Israeli law did not permit barring a Knesset candidate simply for criticising the army and government over alleged war crimes or for supporting a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

In previous elections, the Supreme Court has overturned most attempts to disqualify candidates and parties. In 2019, however, it barred far-right candidate Michael Ben-Ari from running after the Central Elections Committee had approved his candidacy.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear challenges to the latest decisions next week.

Several other petitions are also being considered by the election committee at the Knesset on Wednesday and Thursday, with most challenges targeting Arab parties and candidates.

The New Arab, Agencies