Israel's High Court Rejects Overseas Voters' Petition

Israel's High Court of Justice, known as BA GAT, has dismissed a petition filed by 100 Israeli citizens residing abroad who sought to be reinstated on the voter rolls for the upcoming Knesset elections. The court did not rule on the merits of the case, instead rejecting the petition on procedural grounds.

The petitioners were removed from voter lists because the population registry marked them with "code 51," indicating they were no longer considered residents of Israel. The Ministry of Interior stated this code is applied when citizens inform registry officials of their departure and request to be de-registered as residents. The petitioners, however, claim they never made such requests.

Israeli law requires voters to be over 18 and registered as residents. The petitioners argued this contradicts the Basic Law of the Knesset, which guarantees voting rights to all citizens over 18 regardless of their place of residence. They contended that restricting voting rights based on residency registration is unlawful.

The court cited two main procedural reasons for dismissal: the petition was filed too late, just days before the final voter list was to be finalized, and the petitioners failed to exhaust the legal appeals process for their removal from the lists. They also did not provide sufficient details regarding the circumstances under which each of them was assigned "code 51."

BA GAT did not decide on the fundamental legal question of whether restricting the voting rights of citizens not registered as residents is lawful. The judges indicated that the petitioners could raise this issue again after the current elections.