Balad Chairman Defends Controversial Post-Oct 7 Article to Election Committee

Sami Abu Shehadeh, chairman of the Balad party, is appealing to the Central Elections Committee to prevent his disqualification from running in elections, despite a controversial article he published shortly after the October 7th Hamas attacks. Abu Shehadeh claims that when he wrote the article on October 8, 2023, he was unaware of the full scale of the massacre, stating, "the full extent of the horror had not yet become clear." The appeal comes in response to a disqualification request filed by the Otzma Yehudit party and Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

In his response, Abu Shehadeh offers several explanations for the article, acknowledging in hindsight that its publication was a mistake. His legal team argues that attempts to attribute support for violence or armed struggle to him are baseless. They contend that he has historically opposed violence as a political tool and that no evidence has been presented to support the claim of supporting an armed struggle by a terror organization.

Abu Shehadeh's defense hinges on the limited information available to him at the time of writing. He asserts that the article should be interpreted based on the information he possessed then, not on subsequent revelations. His lawyers do not defend the article's publication as a wise decision, noting in their filing that Abu Shehadeh "honestly clarified that in hindsight he believes he erred and was wrong in publishing it." They further describe the article as "not without its problems."

He also distinguishes between interpreting events and endorsing them, stating that "interpreting reality is not justifying it" and denying any praise for Hamas or support for armed struggle. His lawyers emphasize that the article's ultimate message advocates for a political solution, transferring the initiative to the Palestinian Authority and Arab states. They argue that even a problematic statement regarding a terror organization does not legally equate to "support for armed struggle," citing legal precedents that require a "critical mass" of evidence of repeated actions to disqualify a candidate.

Additionally, Abu Shehadeh claims a mistranslation of a term in the article, where he intended to use a word meaning "campaign" but it was translated as "battle," altering the intended meaning. His legal team presents this as part of a broader argument that his words were distorted and taken out of context. They also highlight his tenure as a Knesset member and note that he has never been prosecuted or investigated for incitement to terrorism, support for a terror organization, or encouraging violence, arguing that a single controversial article is insufficient for disqualification.