Israel: Supreme Court overturns ban on Arab parties in elections

TEL AVIV, 2 October /ATSH – DPA/ – Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Arab parties may take part in the parliamentary elections of 27 October, overturning the decision of the Central Elections Committee to exclude them from the race.

The court argued that the committee’s decision did not fulfil the legal requirements for banning parties from participating in elections.

At the end of September, the Central Elections Committee voted 18 to 5 to exclude the conservative Islamist party Raam, led by Mansour Abbas, as well as the joint electoral list Hadash, Taal and Balad.

Several individual candidates had also been excluded from the race.

The requests to ban the parties were based on accusations that they had expressed support for armed struggle against Israel. The parties rejected the accusations and described the decision as “political, racist and antidemocratic”.

Meanwhile, the Central Elections Committee did not vote to ban the participation of the right-wing party Otzma Yehudit, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

According to opinion polls, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp nor that of his opponents appears able to secure an absolute majority in the 27 October elections.

In this situation, the Raam party may have an important role in forming the parliamentary majority.