Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 23.09.2026
The Elections Committee that disqualified Ofer Kassif and seeks to disqualify Sami Abu Shehadeh, the Joint List and Ra’am must be condemned for racist nationalist motivation.
The Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday morning in favor of disqualifying Knesset member Ofer Kassif, but the final decision is in the hands of the Supreme Court. Later in the hearing, the committee will vote on requests to disqualify several lists running for the 26th Knesset, as well as requests to disqualify Balad Party Chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh. “The disqualification mechanism must be used with special caution and as a last resort. A single unusual statement is not enough to disqualify,” said the committee’s chairman, Justice Noam Sohlberg. “It is necessary to show that the improper grounds are at the core of the candidate’s or list’s goals. Things in the past are not enough to lead to disqualification.” According to him, “Disqualifying a candidate or a list deprives an entire public of the possibility of giving them their vote.” Nineteen members of the committee supported Kassif’s disqualification, five opposed and two abstained.
About two hours before the debate began, Yisrael Beitenu announced that it would vote in favor of disqualifying the Ra’am party, the Joint List, Kassif and Abu Shehadeh. The party’s statement said that “any Zionist government formed after the elections must define the elimination of Hamas as a central goal in its security policy,” and that “any party that opposes it has no place in the Knesset in Israel.” The broadcasts will be broadcast live and will continue tomorrow.
At the hearing on the Likud’s request to disqualify Kasif, attorney Ilan Bombach, who represents the party, said, “We have enormous appreciation for the Arab public, but there is a difference between it and the specific representatives who do not talk about coexistence but rather talk about coming and submitting our necks to slaughter.” According to him, Kassif acted against Israel’s goals as a Jewish and democratic state: “He wanted to revoke the Law of Return. He appealed to the countries and said that we were committing a ‘genocide,’ calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted of three terror attacks in which five people were murdered.” Bombach claimed that Kassif and Abu Shehadeh could have a lot of influence in the next government. “They are destined to be, if, God forbid, a certain bloc forms the government, part of a future coalition and have influence,” he said.
Attorney Hassan Jabareen, who represents Kassif, responded to the remarks. “Bombach complained that Kassif said there was genocide in Gaza. There are at least a million people in Israel who say genocide. So are they illegal? Is it an offense? A Knesset member is not allowed to say what a citizen is allowed?” Jabareen added, “There is no ‘case’ for disqualifying Kasif. There is no statement by Kassif about supporting an armed struggle in Israel.”
According to him, “Kassif’s positions regarding October 7 are more solid than those of the members of the government. He calls October 7 a ‘massacre,’ when the government is debating whether to call the incident a massacre”.
Kassif himself said that presenting his opposition to the government’s policy as support for the enemy is a distortion of reality. “Requests The disqualification is intended to achieve complete delegitimization of Arab society and the Israeli Arab partnership, perpetuation of totalitarian rule and the tyranny of the majority,” he claimed. He added, “Universal justice and condemnation of the injustices of crimes wherever they serve us all and are in the best interest of the state and its residents. There is no contradiction between the absolute condemnation I voiced against the Gaza massacre and the war crimes led by the Israeli government, and the absolute condemnation I voiced against the October 7 massacre and the horrific crimes of Hamas.”
The plenum of the Central Elections Committee is composed of representatives of the factions serving in the outgoing Knesset according to their key to representation in it. The committee, which has a majority in the coalition, is therefore expected to accept the disqualification requests against the Arab parties and against Abu Shehadeh and Kassif, and possibly also against the Democrats, and reject the requests against the right-wing lists. After the committee’s decision, the applicants are entitled to appeal it to the Supreme Court, which will rule on the requests. It is difficult to assess what the justices’ decision will be in Abu Shehadeh’s case, but they are expected to approve the other candidates.
Hearings will be held on three motions to disqualify the Ra’am list submitted by Otzma Yehudit, the Likud, and the “Choosing Life” forum; two motions to disqualify the Otzma Yehudit list filed by Zulat and the Democratic List; Otzma Yehudit’s request to disqualify the Democratic List; Zulat’s request to disqualify the Religious Zionism and Zehut list; the request of the “Everybody’s Party” to disqualify the Balad party; the Likud’s request to disqualify the Joint List and Kassif; and the request to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, who was submitted by Otzma Yehudit.
The disqualification requests are based on Section 7/A of the Basic Law of the Knesset, which states that a list of candidates will not participate in the elections and no person will be a candidate in the Knesset elections, if the goals or actions of the list or the actions of the person, including his statements, explicitly or implicitly, contain one of the following grounds: denial of the existence of the state as a Jewish and democratic state, incitement to racism, or support for an armed struggle by an enemy state or a terrorist organization against Israel.
The committee will discuss the request to disqualify the Joint List, which was also submitted by Likud. In this case, too, it was claimed that the party supports Hamas’ armed struggle against Israel and denies its existence as a Jewish and democratic state. The petition claims that the party sought to repeal the Basic Law: Nationality, recognize a Palestinian state, and change the state’s borders. The motion also referred to Knesset member Kassif’s remarks that he “aided the enemy in times of war,” legitimized “resistance” to Israel, and acted “actively in the international arena against the State of Israel, its institutions and its elected representatives,” when he expressed support for proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Although Ofer Kassif expressed pro-Zionist reformist positions when he said: “Universal justice and condemnation of the injustices of crimes wherever they serve all of us and are in the good of the state and its inhabitants,” in doing so he supports the apartheid state and by saying, “There is no contradiction between the absolute condemnation that I have voiced against the Gaza massacre and the war crimes led by the Israeli government, and the absolute condemnation that I have voiced against the massacre of October 7 and the terrible crimes of Hamas.”