Israel's ugly and undemocratic efforts to bar Arab parties must end

The Israeli Prime Minister's ruling Likud party has filed requests to the Central Elections Committee to ban Arab-led parties from running in the October elections. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Likud party stated that there is no place in the Knesset for parties that harm IDF soldiers and are unable to say that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations.

The Joint List, a coalition of the factions Hadash, Ta al, and Balad, has responded to the disqualification request, calling it a "racist move". The party stated that attempts to prevent them from running would not work and that they would "multiply and break through". The Joint List also criticized the Likud party, describing it as a "crime family" that has "completely lost the public's trust" and has brought "destruction and death".

The effort to bar Arab parties has been criticized as an attempt to weaken the opposition and deny a fifth of Israel's citizens their full political representation, according to Haaretz.

Brief written by urgent.news from Haaretz, Jerusalem Post — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.