Attorney-General pushes for Israel's Supreme Court to ban leader of Arab party Balad from election
The Supreme Court is reviewing the Central Elections Committee’s September 23 decision to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, as required before the disqualification of an individual candidate can become final.
Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara has petitioned the Israel Supreme Court to ban Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh from participating in the upcoming elections, according to a legal submission filed on Tuesday and released on Wednesday. The Justice Ministry released the position under Baharav-Miara's and chief prosecutor Amit Aisman's names.
In the document, submitted before Thursday's hearings on candidate and party disqualifications, Baharav-Miara argued that Abu Shehadeh satisfies the legal requirements for disqualification. Specifically, he cited Abu Shehadeh's support for armed struggle by a terrorist organization against the State of Israel as the reason. The Supreme Court is currently examining the Central Elections Committee's September 23 decision to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, as mandated before an individual candidate's disqualification can be finalized.
The crux of the dispute lies in Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset. This section outlines three grounds for disqualifying a candidate or electoral list: denying Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state; incitement to racism; and backing an armed conflict by an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel. The Elections Committee had disqualified Abu Shehadeh on the first and third grounds.
However, Baharav-Miara requested the court to accept his disqualification solely on the basis of the armed-struggle ground and to reverse the committee's decision regarding Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state.
The filing focused on an Arabic-language article authored by Abu Shehadeh, which was published on October 8, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
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