Israel Supreme Court Clears Arab Parties to Contest October Election

Israel’s Supreme Court on Friday has reversed a decision to bar two major political parties headed by Arab leaders from participating in the country’s elections scheduled for October 27. This decision has come just days after the Central Elections Committee disqualified them; the court has allowed them to run again.

The court unanimously overturned the committee’s decision against the United Arab List, also known as Ra’am, and the Joint List, an alliance of Hadash, Ta’al and Balad. In a separate 7-2 ruling, the court also restored the candidacy of Ofer Cassif, a Jewish lawmaker from the Joint List.

The decision came after Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted in September to prevent the Arab-majority parties from contesting the election. The committee had also voted to disqualify Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh, the leader of Balad, one of the factions within the Joint List.

The two dissenting judges said Kasif supported “armed struggle against the State of Israel,” which is grounds for disqualification.

Whenever the Committee has voted to ban a candidate, the Supreme Court has overturned the decision.

But a hearing on Thursday, judges indicated they would support a ban on Sami Abu Shehadeh, who heads the left-wing Palestinian Balad party. Abu

Shehadeh withdrew his candidacy shortly thereafter.

His party said in a statement that if Abu Shehadeh were removed from the election by court order, it would have “serious consequences for the political and parliamentary life of the country.”

Dispute over October 7 remarks

Abu Shehadeh’s case for disqualification is based on an article he wrote shortly after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. This attack was known to be the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, and Israel launched a massive retaliatory strike in Gaza.

Abu Shehadeh in the article said that the attack was an “important historical event.” He denied he was supporting the attack.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right ally of Netanyahu known for provocative statements, led the campaign against Abu shehadeh and called his exclusion from the election a “huge victory”. However, he wished the Supreme Court had ruled directly against him.

Adalah, an advocacy group for the rights of Israeli Arabs, called the whole disqualification bid an attempt “to delegitimize Palestinian citizens and their parliamentary representatives and to turn racism against Palestinians into electoral propaganda.”

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