In Israel, challenges filed against exclusion from Knesset elections — Jerusalem Post
In Israel, the Ra'am, Joint List and Balad parties, as well as candidates Ofer Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh, have asked the Central Elections Committee to reject six petitions seeking their exclusion from elections to the 26th Knesset. As reported by The Jerusalem Post, no party or candidate has been disqualified so far: the committee must consider the cases and hold a vote.
Responses on behalf of Ra'am, the Joint List, Balad, Knesset member Cassif and former lawmaker Abu Shehadeh were filed on Friday by the human rights organization Adalah. Ra'am is running independently, while the restored Joint List includes Hadash, Ta'al and Balad.
Grounds for possible exclusion
Israeli law allows an electoral list or an individual candidate to be excluded if they reject Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incite racism, or support an armed struggle against Israel waged by a hostile state or terrorist organization. Israel's Supreme Court has set a high threshold for such decisions: an isolated quote or single act is insufficient, and the evidence must show that the prohibited position is central to the list or candidate.
One of the petitions was filed by the Orot Hashachar party, which seeks to disqualify Balad separately, although the party is part of the Joint List. Balad said electoral law provides for the exclusion of an entire list or a specific candidate, but not an individual party within a joint electoral list.
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Petitions regarding Ra'am and candidates
Three of the six petitions target Ra'am. They were filed separately by the Otzma Yehudit party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Likud, and the Choosing Life Forum. The petitioners claim that Ra'am has organizational or ideological ties with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood and three nonprofit organizations. They refer, among other things, to a July 2025 report by the Registrar of Associations and court proceedings concerning bank accounts.
Ra'am denies formal or organizational ties with the named nonprofit organizations and says the materials cited do not prove the party's support for armed struggle by Hamas or any other organization. The party also noted that similar claims were considered in 2022, when the election committee voted 14-0 against its disqualification.
Likud is seeking to exclude the Joint List and Cassif from the elections, citing, among other things, the candidate's public statements and political activities abroad. Cassif said he condemned Hamas's October 7 attack and opposes violence as a political tool. According to The Jerusalem Post, he has not been charged with aiding the enemy during wartime, and a court has not established such a fact.
A separate petition against Abu Shehadeh was filed by Otzma Yehudit and Ben-Gvir; it concerns his Arabic-language article of October 8, 2023. Abu Shehadeh said the text analyzed the political consequences of the Hamas attack and was not an endorsement of the killings of civilians. Hearings on the Joint List, Cassif and Balad are scheduled for Wednesday, while the deadline for relevant appeals has been set for October 2.
