Arab party appeals against ban on running in Israel’s elections

The National Democratic Assembly led by Member of the Knesset, Sami Abu Shehadeh, yesterday appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court against a ban on running in the Knesset elections next month.

On 29 September, Israel’s Central Elections Committee (CEC) voted nine to five to disqualify the party – also known as Balad or Tajammu’ – from the elections.

At the time, Balad said the decision was politically motivated and aimed at dividing the Arab parties into “extremists and moderates”, adding that Palestinian citizens of Israel will not abandon their national voice.

In a statement, the party said: “The ban is a racist political decision which has nothing to do with law,” pointing out that the Israeli political institution is “disturbed with the proposals of the Tajammu’.”

READ: Israel Elections Committee bans Arab party from running

According to the statement, Balad has proposals that “defy systematic discrimination and racism against Arabs, as well as the Jewish supremacy. Therefore, they have been doing their best to ban Tajammu’s for more than 20 years.”

“The political level in Israel and decision-makers have been engineering Palestinian political leaders who keep up with their policies. They do not want those who represent the people because disclosing racism hurts them. They do not want anyone who will disclose that their democracy is a lie.”