Israel's right wing seeks to ban Palestinian parties, candidates from Knesset elections

Israel's far right is seeking to prevent Arab political parties and candidates from standing in next month's Knesset elections, reviving a long-running battle over the political participation of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Disqualification motions have been filed against Ra'am, the Joint List and Balad, as well as individual candidates including MK Ofer Cassif and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh.

The challenges come ahead of Israel's 27 October election and will be heard by the Central Elections Committee later this month.

The official election records show that motions were filed against Ra'am by Likud, Otzma Yehudit and the Choosing Life–Forum of Bereaved Families group.

Likud has also targeted the Joint List and Cassif, while Otzma Yehudit has filed motions against Abu Shehadeh and Balad has been targeted by Orot HaShachar.

The latest moves have once again raised questions over the limits of political participation in a state that defines itself as both Jewish and "democratic".

Under Israel's election law, parties and candidates can be barred from standing if their positions or actions are considered to reject Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state, promote racism or support armed action against Israel.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, says that these grounds are broad enough to have been used against Palestinian political positions in previous elections.

In several prominent cases, the Central Elections Committee approved bans that were later overturned by the Supreme Court. In 2003, for example, the court overturned the disqualification of Balad and MK Azmi Bishara.

In 2022, the Central Elections Committee again voted to disqualify Balad, but the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the decision and allowed the party to run.

Adalah, which has represented Arab parties and candidates in disqualification proceedings for more than two decades, says the repeated attempts to exclude them expose a fundamental contradiction in Israel's claims to democratic political participation.

The organisation is representing the Joint List, Ra'am, Balad, Cassif and Abu Shehadeh in the current proceedings.

In a statement shared with The New Arab, Adalah warned that "Once again, Israel’s right wing is using the disqualification process to attempt to silence and delegitimise the political representatives of Palestinian citizens of Israel".

"In more than two decades representing Palestinian political parties and individual candidates, Adalah has seen such accusations proven baseless and rejected by the Supreme Court time and again, and these attempts are equally baseless," it said.

"However, given the crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association of Palestinian citizens of Israel particularly since October 2023, the current conservative orientation of the Israeli Supreme Court, and rampant public incitement against Palestinians, Adalah has grave concerns about the current round of disqualification motions and their potential outcomes."

The Central Elections Committee is expected to hold hearings on the motions on 23 and 24 September.

The committee's decisions can be appealed to Israel's Supreme Court, with the deadline for appeals set for 29 September and the court expected to rule by 4 October.