Arab citizens, who account for roughly one-fifth of Israel’s population, avoided losing their primary parliamentary representation after Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the disqualification of major Arab political parties and lawmaker Ofer Cassif ahead of the October 27 elections, while Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh withdrew his candidacy following judicial pressure over a wartime article.
With just weeks remaining before Israel goes to the polls on October 27, the country’s Central Elections Committee attempted to bar all Arab political representation from the ballot. The September 23 vote by the CEC targeted the Joint List — a coalition comprising Balad, Ta’al, and Hadash — alongside the party Ra’am, and individual candidates including Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh and lawmaker Ofer Cassif. The disqualifications rested on Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, which permits banning lists or candidates for rejecting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, inciting racism, or supporting armed struggle against the nation.
Supreme Court Rejects Party Bans and Clears Ofer Cassif
An expanded panel of nine Supreme Court justices intervened, unanimously overturning the CEC ban on the Joint List and Ra’am. The court ruled that the stringent criteria required under Section 7A apply exclusively to extreme cases backed by unequivocal evidence. In a separate vote, the justices cleared Ofer Cassif to run by a majority of seven to two, with Justices David Mintz and Alex Stein dissenting on the grounds that Cassif supported armed struggle against Israel.
The petitions against Ra’am had been submitted by Otzma Yehudit, Likud, and the Choosing Life Forum, while Likud sought the disqualification of Cassif and the Joint List. On Thursday, the Supreme Court met to review all four matters following challenges brought by the Joint List under Yusuf Jabareen, the United Arab List under Mansour Abbas, and Joint List parliamentarian Ofer Cassif. The committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg had taken the unusual step of voting in favor of Abu Shehadeh’s disqualification, bringing the final tally to 31-4, noting that while chairmen had refrained from voting for 20 years to maintain neutrality, he found it appropriate to deviate from this practice. The committee also disqualified Ra’am by a majority of 18 to 5 before subsequently disqualifying the Joint List, whereas requests to disqualify Otzma Yehudit and the Democrats’ list were rejected.
The restoration of the electoral lists averted that exclusion. Opposition politicians and rights groups condemned the initial CEC vote. The legal rights organization Adalah argued that the proceedings aimed to persecute ideas rejected by the Jewish majority, while Cassif characterized the attempt to bar him as another nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy. The Communist Party and Hadash called the decision a blatant trampling on the most basic rules of democratic competition, charging that the real goal was to depress Arab turnout.
Sami Abu Shehadeh Withdraws Under Court Pressure Over October 8 Article
While the political parties survived judicial scrutiny, individual candidate Sami Abu Shehadeh faced a different outcome. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party brought the petition against Abu Shehadeh, pointing to an Arabic-language article he published on October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas-led attacks.
when reading the article Abu Shehadeh wrote on Oct. 8 in real time and spontaneously, we learn that he supports terror. The explanations that came ‘afterward’ are already what is known as ‘cheap talk.’
Justice Alex Stein
In that piece, Abu Shehadeh described the assault as an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara backed his disqualification, arguing the text amounted to support for armed struggle. During Supreme Court hearings, it was indicated to Abu Shehadeh that an emerging majority of the nine justices was prepared to uphold his disqualification, though the panel unanimously regarded his statements as painful, disturbing and revolting. Justice Daphne Barak-Erez of the Supreme Court raised the question of how the bench could balance a profoundly disturbing text against the much higher evidentiary threshold normally demanded to disqualify a candidate, whereas Justice Ruth Canfy-Steinitz asked why Abu Shehadeh failed to retract the essay or offer a public disavowal once the full magnitude of the assault became apparent. Abu Shehadeh responded that the article was intended as a warning that Israel needed to reassess its policies and vulnerabilities, acknowledging that one of its most disputed passages failed to convey that meaning.
Facing near-certain exclusion, Abu Shehadeh announced his withdrawal from the October 27 election on Thursday evening, rendering a formal judicial ruling unnecessary. Abu Shehadeh denied endorsing violence, stating that he never called for violence and that armed struggle is contrary to his political methods. Following his exit, he told Reuters that the proceeding demonstrated how in the Jewish state, there are two different laws for citizens according to their identity. Adalah’s general director Hassan Jabareen, who represented Abu Shehadeh, argued that the article contained no direct call for violence and that the attorney general had relied on a single piece of golden evidence while applying a higher standard to Abu Shehadeh than to far-right candidates.
Accusations of Double Standards and Far-Right Exemption
The legal battles highlighted deep divisions over freedom of expression and minority political rights in Israel. Critics and legal representatives pointed to what they termed a glaring double standard in how electoral rules are enforced. While Arab politicians faced disqualification petitions, the Central Elections Committee rejected petitions aimed at barring parties led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Analyst Zaidon Alkinani, founding director of the Arab Perspectives Institute, noted that Israeli political institutions have historically designed the system to ensure the preservation of a Zionist state rather than civic parity. Meanwhile, right-wing factions celebrated the removal of Abu Shehadeh. National Security Minister Ben-Gvir posted on social media that his movement managed to oust Sami Abu Shehadeh and stop him from entering the Knesset, adding that supporters of terrorism and those who praise martyrs would not be allowed to operate freely in Israel’s parliament, and concluding with a farewell message telling him to watch the next Knesset on Channel 99. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich posted on X that Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Amit was laughing all the way to the ballot box, while Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of “Yashar!”, sent a jab at Likud by offering condolences to the party and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the disqualification of a true partner in the Machal alliance.