Israel Supreme Court restores Arab parties to election ballot

Israel's Supreme Court has overruled lawmakers and restored two Arab parties to the upcoming general election ballot. The United Arab List and another Arab party were previously disqualified by an electoral committee of MPs, but the Supreme Court unanimously allowed them to run.

The court also reinstated the candidacy of Ofer Cassif, a far-left Jewish MP, in a 7-2 vote. The two dissenting justices argued that Cassif supported armed struggle against the state of Israel, which they considered grounds for disqualification.

According to Channel News Asia, one Arab-Israeli politician, Sami Abu Shehadeh, who heads the left-wing Palestinian Balad Party, had withdrawn his candidacy under court pressure. The Supreme Court has nearly always overruled the committee when it votes to ban candidates.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch Nigeria, Channel News Asia, CBS News — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.