Israeli Election Panel Bars Main Arab Parties From Running
The decision threatens to strip Arab citizens of their main parliamentary representation ahead of the upcoming national election.
Israel's Central Elections Committee voted on Sept. 23 to bar the country's two main Arab-majority political lists from the parliamentary election scheduled for Oct. 27.
The panel disqualified the Raam party, led by Mansour Abbas, and the Joint List, an alliance of the Hadash, Ta'al, and Balad factions. The committee approved the exclusions following petitions filed by right-wing parties in the governing coalition. Lawmakers accused the Arab lists of denying Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state and backing armed struggle.
The committee also voted to bar two candidates running with the Joint List. It disqualified Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh by a 31-4 margin and Hadash lawmaker Ofer Cassif by a 19-5 vote. Cassif said the move was another blow to Israeli democracy, while Joint List representatives said the government intended to depress Arab voter turnout. Raam called the exclusion an illegitimate effort to keep Netanyahu in power.
The legal basis for the disqualifications rests on Section 7A of the Basic Law: The Knesset. The statute allows authorities to exclude any candidate or party that incites racism, rejects Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, or supports armed struggle by an enemy state or terrorist organization.
Israel's Attorney General's Office advised the committee against barring both political slates. Legal representatives told the panel that the petitions failed to provide sufficient evidence to satisfy the high threshold required by law to exclude entire parties. The attorney general did, however, recommend serious consideration of the petition against Abu Shehadeh because of statements made after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Central Elections Committee is composed mainly of sitting politicians representing current Knesset factions, giving the governing right-wing coalition a working majority. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg chairs the committee and voted against disqualifying the political lists, though he supported the individual ban on Abu Shehadeh.
The disqualification orders cannot take effect without confirmation from the Supreme Court. The high court has historically overturned most committee rulings that barred Arab parties from participating in national elections, including similar disqualifications in 2019 and 2022. The Supreme Court is scheduled to open its review of the disqualification petitions next week.
