Top court flips election committee disqualification of lawmaker, Arab parties

Chen Maanit reports in Haaretz on 2 October 2026:

Israel’s Supreme Court overturned on Friday a Central Elections Committee decision to disqualify two Arab-majority parties and one lawmaker from running for the 2026 Knesset election.

The committee, controlled by the governing coalition, disqualified the United Arab List party and the Joint List – made up of Hadash, Balad and Ta’al parties – and lawmakers Ofer Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh.

The court voted unanimously to overturn the committee’s decision on both parties, with two of nine judges opposing its decision to clear MK Ofer Cassif’s Knesset run. Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh told the court on Friday that he is withdrawing his candidacy after court president Justice Isaac Amit signaled it is inclined to allow his disqualification.

The decision on Cassif was approved with Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Justices Daphne Barak-Erez, Yael Willner, Ofer Grosskopf, Gila Canfy Steinitz, Chaled Kabub and Yechiel Meir Kasher voting to allow his candidacy, over the dissent of Justices David Mintz and Alex Stein.

Mintz and Stein said Cassif’s statements and actions, both directly and indirectly, met the grounds for disqualification based on support for an armed struggle against the State of Israel, which they said was further reinforced by statements he had made in the past.

Balad party leader Abu Shehadeh’s withdrawal means the justices will no longer need to rule on whether a candidate can be barred from running based on a single publication rather than an accumulation of evidence indicating consistent support for terrorism.

The Balad party leader’s candidacy was struck down over an article he wrote immediately after the Hamas-led October 7 attack, which the election committee said constituted support for armed struggle or the actions of a terrorist organization against Israel.

In a statement, Balad said Abu Shahadeh would continue to chair the party and “lead the political struggle to defend Arab representation.”  The party said the decision was made “out of political responsibility toward our people and toward the Joint List, and in recognition of the serious consequences it could have for political and parliamentary activity as a whole.”

The decision to withdraw Abu Shahadeh’s Knesset candidacy was made only after the court’s suggestion, Balad added, saying that the court had effectively disqualified him before issuing its formal ruling.

The case “raises serious questions about the limits of political legitimacy afforded to Arab citizens, and about the use of disqualifications to narrow the scope of Arab political activity and persecute nationalist positions that do not align with the Israeli consensus,” the statement said.

Earlier this month, the elections committee voted to bar Cassif and Abu Shahadeh, alongside UAL and the Joint List. The committee voted 31-4 to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, and 19-5, with two abstentions, to bar Cassif.

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