Israel's top court restores Arab parties' right to compete in elections

Israel's Supreme Court moved to restore political participation on Friday, overturning a ban that would have kept four Arab parties from competing in parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27. The decision came after the Central Elections Committee, controlled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, had moved in late September to disqualify the parties and bar several individual candidates from the race.

The court's ruling was decisive on the main question: the United Arab List, known as Ra'am, and the Joint List—a coalition of three smaller parties called Hadash, Balad, and Ta'al—will be permitted to run. Both decisions were unanimous. The court also overturned a ban on Hadash lawmaker Ofer Cassif, though two of the nine judges dissented on that point. Arab citizens comprise roughly one-fifth of Israel's population, and the restoration of these parties' candidacy ensures their political representation will not be erased from the ballot.

The case of Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of the Balad party, presented a more complicated question. The court did not formally overturn the ban against him but instead advised him to withdraw voluntarily, signaling it would uphold the committee's disqualification if he chose to remain a candidate. The grounds centered on an article Shehadeh published one day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, in which he described the assault as "an important historical event." That attack killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and resulted in the abduction of more than 250 others. Shehadeh later told the court he regretted the article and condemned the attack, but the court's position remained unchanged.

Shehadeh's response to the court's decision highlighted what he saw as a double standard. He pointed out that the same committee that moved to disqualify him had not pursued similar action against far-right lawmakers with what he characterized as serious legal vulnerabilities. He cited National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit party is part of Netanyahu's coalition, as an example. Ben-Gvir has made statements asserting that Jewish rights supersede Palestinian rights in the West Bank—claims that drew criticism from both the United States and the European Union when made in 2023. Shehadeh argued that the committee's willingness to tolerate such statements while barring him for his words revealed an inconsistency in how the law was being applied. "Committing a genocide is considered acceptable and legitimate, but talking about ending the occupation and peace is considered illegitimate," he told Reuters. Israel has consistently rejected accusations of genocide in Palestinian territories.

The legal framework underlying the committee's attempted ban derives from Israel's basic law, which permits disqualification of candidates or parties that negate Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incite racism, or express support for armed struggle by hostile states or terrorist organizations. Netanyahu's Likud party and coalition partners like Otzma Yehudit had submitted petitions arguing that Arab parties and candidates violated these criteria and should be barred. The Central Elections Committee, structured to reflect the composition of the governing coalition, had acted on those petitions—until the Supreme Court intervened.

The court's decision carries substantial weight for the election and the political negotiations that will follow. Recent polling shows Netanyahu's Likud party in a tight contest with the Yashar faction, led by former Israeli general Gadi Eisenkot, for the largest share of votes. Neither side is expected to secure enough seats to form a government independently, meaning coalition negotiations will be necessary. The Ra'am party, a conservative Muslim-led group headed by Mansour Abbas, now emerges as a potential kingmaker—a party whose support could prove decisive in determining which coalition reaches the threshold needed to govern. The restoration of Arab political participation has reshaped the arithmetic of Israeli politics at a critical moment.