Arab Candidates Can Run for Election, Supreme Court Rules
Arab Candidates Can Run for Election, Supreme Court Rules
Jan. 9, 2003
Jerusalem (ICEJ) — The Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify two Arab Knesset members and the Balad party from running in the Jan. 28 election.
The court overturned the disqualifications of Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara, but upheld the decisions to disqualify Likud candidates Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Feiglin.
Tibi praised the Court for “blocking the anti-democratic avalanche of the right-wing.”
“It is not easy to be an Arab in the state of Israel, especially over the past two years, and especially the last few weeks,” he said.
“There was no legal aspect whatsoever to the (original CEC) decision,” Bishara said after the high court announced its ruling.
A disappointed Moshe Feiglin said, “The same body that approved the candidacies of those responsible for the murder of Jews didn’t approve my candidacy.”
The CEC disqualified the controversial Arab politicians, Tibi and Bishara, from the Knesset last week saying they support terrorism and deny the Jewish character of the state. Their appeals went before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The CEC’s took Mofaz off the Likud list because he would not have completed the six-month cooling-off period after his army discharge in time for the election. Feiglin was disqualified because of a conviction on incitement charges. A person convicted of a serious offense is barred from running for Knesset for seven years.