The election committee rejected Balad’s candidacy for the Knesset. The decision goes to the Supreme Court

by time news

The Central Election Committee decided today (Thursday) to disqualify the Balad party from running for the 25th Knesset. The representatives of the right-wing parties were absent from the vote, in order to make Balad run, thus wasting votes for the left bloc.

The state camp party voted in favor of the disqualification. Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the chairman of the party, said that the list works against the Jewish and democratic nature of the State of Israel, and therefore should not run in the Knesset. “There is no place in the Israeli House of Representatives for those who act in extremes against the state,” Gantz said.

The party is expected to petition the High Court against its disqualification, as it holds the opinion of Legal Adviser to the Government Gali Beharve-Miara that the disqualification of Balad would be wrong.

Member of Knesset Sami Abu Shahada attacked the leaders of Yesh Atid and the state camp. “The attempt this time to disqualify Balad is an attempt by Gantz and Lapid to engineer an Arab leadership according to their political needs. Just as Balad came out stronger and strengthened in the past from the attempts to disqualify it and the attempts to push the platform of the state of all its citizens into a corner, it will not work for them this time either. The Arab public will choose a leadership that is the spearhead against racism and against the occupation, and in favor of a state for all its citizens and full equality.”

Minister Yoaz Handel said during the discussion of the disqualification request: “When I fought in the Second Lebanon War, the founder of the party and a serving member of the Knesset, Azmi Ashra, spied for Hezbollah, compromised the security of the country and fled the country to Qatar. The current chairman calls for the prosecution of the prime minister and the previous prime ministers in court in The Hague due to countering terrorism in Israel,” he said.

Still during the committee, the members rejected the request to disqualify Ra’am by a majority of 14 without opposition. The representatives of the bereaved families came to the hearing and tearfully called for the disqualification of the list supporting terrorism. According to them, the members of the list belong to the Islamic movement that transfers millions of shekels to Hamas and the terrorists.

Mirav Hajaj, the bereaved mother of Shir Hid, who was murdered in the 2017 stampede attack at the Governor’s Palace, said in tears: “Ream today is paying money to the family of the terrorist who murdered my daughter, Shir Shir. If you don’t vote against them, the blood of the victims of the next attack will be on your children. Whoever votes against or refrains from disqualifying Ra’am is complicit in the dishonor and shame on his own hands.

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