3 January 2013

Following a high-profile case, Israel's High Court of Justice has unanimously overturned the Central Election Committee’s decision to ban controversial Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from running on the Balad party list in the January 22 Knesset elections.

Under the 1985 Knesset Basic Law, parties and individuals can only be banned from running for Knesset for three reasons: negating Israel as a Jewish State; negating the democratic nature of Israel; and incitement to racism.  Meir Kahane's Kach party, banned for incitement to racism, is the only party to have been banned from running for Knesset. 

In banning Zoabi, the Central Election Committee claimed that he had undermined Israeli interests by participating in the Mavi Marmara flotilla in May 2010, which attempted to breach the Gaza blockade. 

The closely-followed case was highly contentious with pro-democracy voices opposing the ban, including Israel's Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.

The expanded nine justice panel ruled unanimously in favor of Zoabi in response to the petition by veteran NIF grantee Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. 

Adalah’s founder and Director Hassan Jabareen said,  “The fact that the repeated attempts to disqualify Arab MKs and political parties made over the last 15 years have had no legal basis, as the Israeli High Court of Justice has consistently ruled, indicates that the aim of the right-wing is to delegitimize the elected Arab leadership in Israel."

Attorney Dan Yakir, NIF Law Fellow alum and Chief Legal Counsel of flagship NIF grantee Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said, “Disqualifying candidates and parties is an extreme measure and should be avoided whenever possible.  Unfortunately, in every election cycle, there are those who strive towards an antagonistic undemocratic process out of populist and cynical considerations."

The High Court judges said they will hand down their reasoning behind the decision at a later date.  All of Israel's leading legal experts were unanimous in supporting the High Court ruling. Bar-Ilan University Professor Yedidia Stern and vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute said, "If Zoabi and the whole Balad party would not participate in the elections, it would be against the interest of the state of Israel because then we would project to the entire world, and to ourselves, that not all views could be heard here. Let her talk.”