Israel's Supreme Court Reverses Election Committee Bans on Arab Parties and MK

Israel's Supreme Court on Friday overturned decisions by the Central Elections Committee to disqualify the Ra'am party, the Joint List, and Member of Knesset Ofer Cassif from running in the upcoming 26th Knesset elections. The legal proceedings against Sami Abu Shehadeh of the Joint List were dismissed after he withdrew his candidacy.

The ruling was delivered by an expanded panel of nine justices, headed by President Yitzhak Amit, one day after the hearing. Due to legal timelines requiring decisions no later than 23 days before election day, the justices released only the ruling and a summary of their reasoning, with full explanations to follow.

The Elections Committee had disqualified the two lists and two candidates on September 24, citing grounds of denying Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state and supporting an armed struggle by an enemy state or terror organization against Israel. Ra'am also faced a disqualification ground of incitement to racism. Petitions for disqualification were filed by parties including Likud, Otzma Yehudit, and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.

In the cases of Ra'am and the Joint List, the justices unanimously accepted the parties' appeals. They determined that the evidence presented to the committee did not meet the legal standards for disqualifying candidate lists. For MK Cassif, whose disqualification required Supreme Court approval, the justices were divided. A majority of seven justices, including President Amit and Justices Dafna Barak-Erez, Yael Vilner, Ofer Groskopf, Gila Kenfy-Steinholtz, Khaled Kabub, and Yechiel Kasher, decided not to approve the disqualification. The majority opinion noted that all justices expressed reservations about Cassif's statements and actions, but concluded that they did not constitute the necessary evidentiary threshold under strict legal precedents.

Justices David Mintz and Alex Stein, in a minority opinion, argued that Cassif's statements and actions directly and indirectly supported an armed struggle against Israel, a claim strengthened by his past remarks. Regarding Abu Shehadeh, the justices had indicated during the hearing that his words were "painful, outrageous, and disgusting." Although there were differing opinions within the panel, the apparent outcome was to uphold the committee's decision to disqualify him. Consequently, Abu Shehadeh announced his withdrawal, leading the court to dismiss the proceedings against him.

The justices reiterated in their ruling that due to the elevated status of the right to be elected and the extreme nature of barring participation in elections, the criteria for exercising disqualification authority are narrow.