Israeli top court overturns election ban on Arab party

Jerusalem, Oct 10 The Israeli top court has overturned a ban preventing the Arab party of Balad from running in the country's parliamentary elections due on November 1.

The Supreme Court's nine-judge panel unanimously decided to cancel the decision by the Central Elections Committee to disqualify Balad from running in the elections, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement released by the court that did not mention reasons for the decision.

On September 29, the Central Elections Committee, the body that authorizes parties and candidates ahead of votes and is made up of lawmakers from several political parties, voted nine-to-five to disqualify the Arab party.

Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah, an Israeli Arab rights group that petitioned the Supreme Court on behalf of Balad, said in a statement that the Central Elections Committee has tried to ban other Arab lists and candidates ahead of each of the election rounds over the past few years.

"The purpose of the moves by the committee is to incite against Arab political representatives and push them beyond the boundaries of legitimate political discourse," he said.

Arab citizens of Israel, which compose about 20 per cent of the country's population, are Palestin who remained in the territory after Israel's Independence War in 1948.

The judges also overturned another decision by the Elections Committee, ruling that former lawmaker Amichai Chikli, who ran in 2021 with the Yamina party, could run in the upcoming elections with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.

Chikli was ousted from Yamina, a pro-settler party headed by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in April after he refused to vote for the coalition. About two months later the narrow coalition collapsed, triggering unprecedented fifth elections in fewer than four years.