Israel's Election Committee Bars Joint List Arab Alliance from Knesset Race

Israel's Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify the Joint List—an alliance of the Arab parties Hadash, Ta'al and Balad—from contesting the upcoming 26th Knesset election. The coalition condemned the ruling as a political, racist and anti-democratic attempt to silence more than one million Arab citizens, and announced it will appeal to the Supreme Court. The decision arrived shortly after the committee also barred United Arab List (Ra'am) and rejected the candidacies of Hadash MK Ofer Cassif and Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, following petitions from the far-right Otzma Yehudit, Likud and the Choosing Life Forum.

Committee chair Justice Noam Sohlberg broke customary neutrality by voting in favor of Abu Shehadeh’s disqualification. The petitions alleged the candidates denied Israel's character as a Jewish and democratic state or supported armed struggle against it. The Supreme Court will now determine the final outcome of these disqualification appeals.