Israel's Supreme Court Allows Cassif, Joint List, and United Arab List to Run in Elections

The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled to allow Member of Knesset Ofer Cassif, the Joint List, and the United Arab List to participate in the upcoming 26th Knesset elections. The decision came after Sami Abu Shehadeh, head of the National Union Party, resigned from the Joint List's slate of candidates on Friday, submitting his resignation to the Supreme Court. Justices David Mintz and Alex Stein were in the minority, favoring the disqualification of Cassif, but the majority ruling will permit him to run.

The court stated in its decision that there was consensus that Abu Shehadeh's statements were "painful, provocative, and disgusting." Regarding Cassif, the justices noted that while they all had reservations about his "provocative statements and actions," they did not meet the "strict criteria" set for disqualification.

Earlier, a request to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, submitted by Otzma Yehudit, was approved by the committee with a significant majority of 31 votes to 4. In an exceptional move, the committee's head, Justice Noam Sohlberg, also voted in favor of disqualification, explaining that while election committee heads typically abstain from voting to maintain neutrality, he deemed it appropriate to break with tradition in this instance. Abu Shehadeh announced Thursday evening that he would accept the recommendation of Chief Justice Amitt and resign from the list.