Overview
- The Central Elections Committee voted this week to disqualify Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh, the Joint List, and the United Arab List (Ra’am) from the October 27 election.
- Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg broke with precedent by voting for Abu Shehadeh’s ban, and the panel cited Section 7A of the Basic Law for claims of denying Israel’s Jewish character or supporting armed struggle.
- Petitions to bar the parties and candidates were filed mainly by right‑wing groups including Likud, Otzma Yehudit, and the Choosing Life Forum, while the committee rejected several bids to disqualify far‑right and some center‑left lists.
- Excluded parties and civil rights lawyers said they will appeal and the decisions must now be submitted to the Supreme Court for hearings scheduled next week, where past precedent shows many bans have been overturned.
- If the Supreme Court upholds the bans, the result would alter the possible paths to a 61‑seat majority and leave over a million Palestinian citizens without their main Knesset blocs, raising questions about representation and partisan enforcement of the law.