Israel’s Central Elections Committee has voted to bar all of the country’s Arab parties from the October 27 election, opening a legal battle that is expected to reach the Supreme Court next week.
The committee excluded both the United Arab List, known as Ra’am, and the Joint List. It also voted separately to disqualify Hadash legislator Ofer Cassif and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh. The decisions are subject to Supreme Court approval and therefore have no final effect at this stage.
The Joint List brings together the Arab-led Hadash, Ta’al and Balad parties. Ra’am is led by Mansour Abbas. The sweeping nature of the party-level exclusions means the court will face a decision on whether those political groupings can take part in the election at all.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party led the effort to secure the exclusions. It was supported by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar Party and by Democrats leader Yair Golan.
The committee said the bans were based on claims that the parties and candidates had rejected Israel’s Jewish and democratic character or supported armed struggle. Israel’s Basic Laws bar candidates from the Knesset if they support armed struggle against the state.
On Wednesday, the committee voted 31-4 to disqualify Abu Shehadeh from the October 27 contest. The petition against him focused on an October 8, 2023, article in which he described the Hamas-led massacre as an “important historic event”.
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the committee, voted in favour of Abu Shehadeh’s disqualification. His vote broke with decades of precedent, according to the account of the proceedings.
Adalah, the legal centre representing the affected parties, said it would appeal the decisions concerning all Arab parties and several candidates before the Supreme Court. It called the committee process an “arbitrary, inciting and racist process”.
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies, described the decision as “utterly depressing”. He said the disqualifications had been passed on “flimsy pretexts”.
The Supreme Court must approve the committee’s decisions before the exclusions can take effect. Observers expect it to reverse the broad ban on Arab party participation, although the court’s final position on the party exclusions, the individual candidates or both remains unknown.
The coming hearing will determine whether Ra’am, the Joint List, Cassif and Abu Shehadeh remain excluded from the election scheduled for October 27.
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