Israeli Election Committee's Controversial Decision

Before voters have their say, Israel's election committee voted

dominated by a right-wing majority,

to disqualify the two lists comprising the Arab parties

Hadash, Balad, and Ta'al in the Joint List

and the United Arab List.

Arab lawmakers see the decision as an attempt to exclude them from

an election in which their seats could be decisive in

determining the next government's identity, as their parties could

hold the balance of power.

By God, I don't know what country in the world disqualifies all

the parties representing a national minority, and in our case,

practically all the parties representing our

Arab public and Jewish democratic forces were disqualified.

While the election committee disqualified the Arab lists on the pretext of

supporting terrorism or rejecting Israel's Jewish character, it rejected requests

to disqualify Minister Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party, even though

he is the only member of the Israeli Knesset who was convicted

by an Israeli court of supporting a terrorist organization.

You puffed-up con artist.

A paradox Arab lawmakers see as evidence that the battle is not

solely about the candidacy requirements, but about their place in

the coming political equation and an attempt to prevent

the fall of right-wing rule.

Sami Abu Shehadeh has been disqualified. We will tell him, “Out, out!”

Out of the Knesset and out of the State of Israel.

Ben Gvir and Netanyahu are afraid of the Arab vote in

this election battle. They know very well why they filed the request for

disqualification.

The final word lies with the Supreme Court within days, which has overturned

similar disqualification decisions in the past. But Sami Abu

Shehadeh’s fate in particular, the head of the Balad party, remains less clear

after the election committee chair voted to disqualify him and the

legal adviser’s recommendation regarding him. The attempt to sideline

Arab representation could yield the opposite result. Greater turnout

by Arab voters at the ballot boxes to respond to the disqualification with votes

seeking to bring down the right-wing government and prevent it from remaining in

power. Ziad Halabi, Al Hadath, Jerusalem.