Arab party ban won’t hold but reveals a changed Israel

In recent years a de facto division of roles has prevailed when it comes to Arab parties and candidates running in Knesset elections

The pattern has been that the Central Elections Committee, a political body in which the coalition enjoys a majority, votes to disqualify an Arab candidate or list on the grounds that they reject the Jewish character of the state or support armed struggle against it. Such disqualifications, which reached a record high last week, are popular with a public that is constantly moving to the right and strategically they seek to delegitimize Arab parties so that they cannot be a tiebreaker in elections

But the bans generally get overturned when they come under scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Acting as the good cop in this instance, it lays down the law and overturns the ban, citing democratic prerogatives and stressing that citizens’ ability to elect their representatives must be very broadly ensured.

This time, however, is different. For the first time, the CEC has banned all Arab parties and candidates and, although most will almost certainly be overturned, the ban on Sami Abu Shehadeh, the leader of the anti-Zionist Balad party, could be upheld by the Court.

Shehdeh was disqualified on the grounds that he supports terrorism after he published an article on Oct 8 2023 praising Hamas’s attack. He has since disavowed parts of the article.

Balad has contested Israeli elections and had Knesset members since 1999. It is now part of an alliance of three Arab parties known as the Joint List.

Shehadeh stressed that his disqualification was initiated by the ultranationalist Jewish Power party and turned his defence into an attack: “To support genocide and Jewish superiority is okay, what is unacceptable is to lead a project for justice, freedom and equality,” he said.