One week ago, on September 24th, the Central Election Committee used its power to bar both specific figures, such as Arab politician and leader of the Balad party Sami Abu Shehadeh, as well as all organized Arab and Arab-aligned parties (Ra’am and the Joint List, itself an alliance of Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad) from participating in the upcoming October 27 election.
Both the parties and the individuals barred by the Committee have appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, to overturn these suspensions as being baseless attempts to disenfranchise Israel’s Arab citizens. While it is widely suspected the High Court will overturn the party suspensions, it is yet unclear whether it will overturn the individual suspensions, with the President of the court recently advising one of the banned politicians (Sami Abu Shehadeh) to discontinue his campaign.
The Central Election Committee is a politically appointed body, and many have said these bans are simply the Committee acting as an arm of the sitting Netanyahu government, but even parties of the opposition that seek to unseat Netanyahu have either been silent on this action or voiced tacit or at times open support for banning Arab parties.
If these bans are allowed to stand, it would leave Israel’s Arab population, approximately 20% of the population, effectively disenfranchised and without suitable representation in the next Knesset.
