Just hours after the High Court of Justice overturned the ruling of the Central Elections Committee allowing the candidacy of Ofer Ksif and all Arab parties for the upcoming elections, the Court overturned another Committee ruling and disqualified Attorney Michael Ben Ari who heads the Otzma Yehudit party from running in the same elections. The court ruled that Ben Ari is too racist to run – but that the Arabs, in spite of their continued racist statements and policies, are fit to run.

In a majority vote of 8 judges to one, the High Court disqualified Ben Ari. They did allow the candidacy of Attorney Ben Gvir.

The party is expected to hold a press conference at 8:15 Israel time at party headquarters in Jerusalem.

One of the first parties to respond to the new was the far-left Meretz party whose leader Tamar Zandberg said: “Bibi brought Ben Ari in and Meretz got him out. Whoever believes in the supremacy of race needs to be behind bars and not in the Israeli Knesset. It is a good thing that the High Court gave its ruling loud and clear. The Prime Minister’s attempt to bring Kahanists into the Knesset is just another link in the chain of the dark racism that has developed here in the last few years and it is a good thing for the country that Meretz is around to stand in the way of this trend. Our appeal led to victory in this fight as well.”

The United Right Party also issued a statement in response to the ruling which said: “The ruling of the High Court is an embarrassment. We will put an end to the wild unruly behavior of activism that is displayed by the High Court. This is the Theater of the Absurd in its purest form. It is unfortunately to be expected of such judges whose natural place is to sit in the court of Meretz.”

The statement continued: “Ofer Ksif, Tibi ad Zoabi support terror activities and they are allowed to get into the Knesset. But Ben Ari, who is a Zionist Israeli and whose children fight in the IDF, he is kicked out. This shows the complete disconnect between the court and the people. The court won’t decide for the people who will be their elected representatives, the people will decide. There is now only one way to answer this disconnect of the court and that is to vote for the United Right during the elections.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)