Ten Disqualification Bids Filed for Israeli Elections, Some Already Rejected

The Central Elections Committee has received ten requests to disqualify lists and candidates from running in the upcoming 26th Knesset elections. The deadline for submitting challenges against lists filed on the first day of candidacy registration, September 25th, passed on Monday at 10 PM. Among the submitted requests are three separate bids by Otzma Yehudit, the Likud party, and the "Bocharim B'Haim" (Choosing Life) forum to disqualify the Ra'am party list. Otzma Yehudit also filed a request to disqualify the Democrats list.

Two petitions target the Otzma Yehudit list itself. One was filed by the "Zulat Nashim" (Zulat for Equality and Human Rights) organization and others, and the second by the Democrats. Both requests also sought to disqualify specific candidates on the Otzma Yehudit list, including its chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir. While the parts of these requests concerning individual candidates were immediately dismissed, the challenges against the list itself will be considered.

A request to disqualify the "Yisrael T'chila" (Israel First) list, headed by Sharren Haskel, was rejected outright. Another petition was submitted by Uri Bechor against the joint list of the Religious Zionism and Identity parties. On an individual level, two more requests were filed: the "Im Tirtzu" movement sought to disqualify Democrats chairman Yair Golan, but this bid was dismissed. Ziv Moscowitz and others filed a request to disqualify candidate Yoram Cohen.

According to Basic Law: The Knesset, Section 7A, requests to disqualify lists and candidates who registered on the second day of candidacy, September 26th, can be submitted until Tuesday at 10 PM. The remaining pending requests, along with those submitted on Tuesday, are expected to be discussed by the plenum of the Central Elections Committee next week.