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Board president slams ‘utterly depressing’ move to ban Arab parties from Israeli election
'Israel’s Arab-led parties should be viewed as partners towards national healing and regional peace, not disqualified on flimsy pretexts,' said Phil Rosenberg
The move was spearheaded by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and supported by Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar Party as well as Democrats leader Yair Golan.
The committee voted to disqualify both the United Arab List (Ra’am), led by Mansour Abbas, and the Joint List, an alliance of the Arab-led Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad parties.
Additionally, the committee voted separately to bar Hadash legislator Ofer Cassif and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh from running.
Responding on his personal platform on X, Rosenberg wrote : “I find this so utterly depressing. My Zionism is one that celebrates Israel as a state that grants equality to all its citizens.
“Israel’s Arab-led parties should be viewed as partners towards national healing and regional peace, not disqualified on flimsy pretexts. Israel’s Supreme Court will likely overturn most if not all of these bans. But it should not come to this. A basic moral compass should be enough.”
The bans are not final and decisions against individual candidates require Supreme Court approval, and lists can appeal their exclusion.
Adalah, the legal centre representing the parties and candidates, announced it would challenge the votes when the court hears the cases next week.
The Joint List responded: “It is deeply regrettable to see that those who claim to seek to replace Netanyahu are once again falling into the racist trap set by Netanyahu and Ben Gvir and lending their support to this political campaign,” accusing opposition parties of “deepening racism” and helping entrench Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rule.
Adalah denounced the proceedings as an “arbitrary, inciting and racist process,” pledging to appeal the decisions to disqualify all Arab parties and several candidates from the October 27 election before the Supreme Court.
A petition, filed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, cited an Arabic-language article by Sami Abu Shehadeh, published on October 8, 2023, in which he described the previous day’s assault as “an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically” and suggested others could learn from Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.
The committee voted 30-4 to disqualify Shehadeh, the Balad party chairman.
Shehadeh, who denies any support for violence or terrorism, said his disqualification was an attempt to “silence” him and the political voice of Arab society.
“I have never called for violence or terrorism,” he said. “I oppose armed struggle and remain committed to political and civil struggle for peace, justice and equality. The attempt to disqualify me is an attempt to undermine the representation and political voice of Arab society.”
All opposition parties — including Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White — backed the petition.
The CEC also voted 18-5 to accept a Likud petition to disqualify the Joint List, citing the Basic Law: “The Knesset, which prohibits parties that express support for armed struggle against Israel from running for Knesset.”
Hadash and its communist faction Maki denounced the decision as a “blatant trampling of the most basic rules of the democratic game,” accusing the “fascist right” of seeking to depress Arab voter turnout and pledging to challenge what they called “political persecution.”
The committee further voted 18-5 to disqualify Ra’am, accepting petitions from Likud, Otzma Yehudit, and the Choose Life Forum, which represents victims of terror.
Meanwhile, the CEC voted 19-10 against disqualifying National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party from the October 27 election, rejecting petitions filed by the Democrats and the Zulat Institute for Equality and Human Rights.
The petition argued that Otzma Yehudit violated the Basic Law: The Knesset, which bars parties that negate Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state or incite racism.
During a hearing, Democrats MK Gilad Kariv said: “Ben Gvir is not a right-wing Zionist; he is a racist Kahanist who has been convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organisation.”
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