Israeli electoral authorities exclude Arab parties from voting

A Central Electoral Commission voted to exclude from the Arab joint list Hadash-Taal, Raam party and Ofer Cassif (Hadash party) and Sami Abu Shehadeh (Balad party).

The parties supporting the government coalition, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, had called for the exclusion of these political forces, accusing them of “denying the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic State” and of “supporting the armed struggle of an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel”.

The four requests for consideration received a large majority at a special hearing in the Israeli parliament (Knesset), but they still have to go through the last obstacle of the Supreme Court next week.

The electoral committee, with proportional representation of the various parties in the Knesset, voted 18-5 in favour of the disqualification of Hadash-Taal.

Also known as the joint list, it presents itself as an alternative to “supremacism” against the Palestinians and includes members ranging from the Arab-Jewish and Communist Left of Hadash to Balad’s Arab nationalism and the more pragmatic approach to the Taal.

The initiative to exclude Hadash Arab deputy Ofer Cassif from the October elections was also successful, after a request made by Likud's majority party, headed by Netanyahu.

Cassif was accused of “denying Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state” and criticized for publicly using the term “genocide” to refer to the Israeli army’s actions in the Gaza Strip over the past three years.

In addition, by disqualifying Raam — a party that was part of the government coalition of former Prime Ministers Naphtali Bennett and Yair Lapid (2021-2022) — the committee argued that it “incites racism and expresses its support for the armed struggle against the country”.

The Raam, led by Mansour Abbas, was seen by many analysts as a faithful balance potential in the October 27 elections, which should be a close dispute between the coalition parties led by Benjamin Netanyahu with the far right and the centrist Yashar, the former chief of the Gadi Eisenkot armed forces.

At the end of August, the Abbas party broke a taboo by including a Jewish candidate, Yoav Segalovitz, a former police officer and deputy, on his legislative list.

The Israeli NGO Adalah, which continues to represent all Arab lists and politicians in this process, condemned in a statement released after the parliamentary hearing “an arbitrary, racist process that incites hatred without the guarantees of proper legal proceedings”.

Adalah’s lawyer Suhad Bishara had argued before the committee that the requests were based “mainly on ancient evidence that had already been examined by both the Attorney General and the security services.”.

The Central Election Commission rejected a separate motion to disqualify Balad as an independent party, even if it was on the joint list, based on procedural flaws pointed out by Adalah during the hearing.

However, the disqualification of Sami Abu Shehadeh, president of Balad, was approved.

Balad is accused of “supporting the actions of a terrorist organization against Israel” because of an article he published after the attacks led by the Islamist Hamas group in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

In the text, Shehadeh described the attacks as “a significant historical event from a military, political and strategic point of view”.

Months later, Shehadeh manifested regret, justifying that he wrote the text when he still “did not know the magnitude of atrocities”.

According to the Basic Law of Israel on the Knesset, a candidate or party may be prevented from running for election if it rejects the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incites racism or supports the armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or terrorist organization.

Before each election, the Israeli parties attempt to invalidate the candidatures of their rivals to the election committee, measures which are usually annulled shortly thereafter by the Supreme Court.

According to the general polls, Arab parties can elect up to 12 deputies.

Netanyahu's Likud and Eisenkot's Yashar are very close, with a slight advantage to the latter, although none of them achieves a result that will control the 120 seats of the Knesset, such as the aggregate blocks close to the government or the opposition.