Israel bans Arab parties from election: Who they are, why it matters — SkimNews
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- Israel's Central Elections Committee voted 18-5 to bar both the Joint List (Hadash, Balad, Ta'al) and Ra'am (United Arab List) from the October 27 election, following petitions filed by Likud and Otzma Yehudit accusing the parties of denying Israel's Jewish and democratic character
- Ofer Cassif (Jewish Hadash member) and Sami Abu Shehadeh (Balad leader) were also disqualified by 18-5 and 31-4 votes respectively, with Abu Shehadeh's case centered on an October 8, 2023 article calling Hamas's attack "an important historic event"
- Petitions to disqualify far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit and Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism were rejected, though both have advocated Palestinian displacement from Gaza and West Bank annexation and face international sanctions
- Prime Minister Netanyahu remains eligible to run despite an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza and an ongoing corruption trial that began in 2020; he denies the allegations
- Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara opposed disqualification of the two lists and Cassif, arguing the evidence did not meet the legal threshold, though she supported barring Abu Shehadeh
- The Supreme Court is expected to review the decisions next week and has historically overturned similar committee exclusions in 2003, 2013, 2015, 2020, and 2022
- Palestinian citizens make up roughly one-fifth of Israel's population and would lose their principal parliamentary representation in the 120-seat Knesset if the bans stand
Why it matters: Palestinian citizens—roughly one-fifth of Israel's electorate—face losing their main representation in the 120-seat Knesset weeks before the October 27 vote. The committee kept Netanyahu, who faces an ICC arrest warrant, and far-right ministers under international sanctions on the ballot while disqualifying Arab parties with 10 combined current seats, and the Supreme Court must now decide whether to uphold a ban no previous court has allowed to stand.
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