As was the case in 2003, the High Court of Justice on Wednesday overturned the decision of the Central Election Committee disqualifying Arab parties from the upcoming general elections for the 18th Knesset. The reason for their disqualification was their refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as the Jewish Homeland.
As a result of the ruling, the Ta’al and United Arab List – Ta’al Parties will be taking part in the election.
The nine-justice panel heard the case, as the law demands in such a case, and the court relied heavily on the opinion of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who stated their was no reason to disqualify the parties from running.
Of course, the Arab MKs were quite pleased with the decision, calling it a “slap in the face” to Avigdor Lieberman of the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu Party. Lieberman stated the court was paving the way to the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
The decision elicited many responses, with praise being heard from the Arabs and left-wing Israelis and condemnatory statements from the right-wing.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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2 Responses
1. Of course, in democracies political parties don’t get banned. During the Cold War, the US allowed the Communists to run every year.
2. Under proportional representation, allowing the more radical Arab parties to run will help the right wing in the election since they will spread out the far-left anti-zionist vote, possibly resulting in some of their parties failing to make the threshold which results in their votes being thrown out. Also, since the two “un-banned” parties can’t join a coalition, it will hurt any attempt by Kadimah (or Labor) to form a government, whereas had they been banned, their votes would have gone to more moderate parties (e.g. Hadash or Meretz) that would join a government.
3. It is interesting that even though Israel is famous for game theory (an Israeli won a Nobel in it), Israeli politicans are poor at electoral mathematics.
There might be a bright side to this. Had their parties not been allowed to run, they might have voted for Meretz. Imagine Meretz with 16 MKs chas v’shalom…