Israeli election panel votes to bar Ra'am and Joint List from October vote
Israel's Central Elections Committee disqualifies the two main Arab-led parties and two individual lawmakers, sending the case to the Supreme Court weeks before the October 27 election.
What to know
- Israel's Central Elections Committee barred both main Arab-aligned parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, plus lawmakers Ofer Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh, from the October 27 election.
- The bans are not final: candidate exclusions need Supreme Court approval and lists can appeal; Adalah says it will challenge them when the court hears the cases next week.
- The Attorney General found no legal basis to bar Ra'am, the Joint List or Cassif, but flagged an Abu Shehadeh article for review; the vote against him broke precedent when the committee's judicial chair voted to disqualify.
- The parties targeted represent more than 1.25 million voters, raising the stakes for Palestinian citizens' Knesset representation weeks before the vote.
Mansour Abbas Leader of Ra'amYousef Jabareen Leader of the Joint ListSami Abu Shehadeh Balad leader, barred candidate
Benjamin Netanyahu Israeli Prime Minister, Likud leader
Itamar Ben-Gvir National Security Minister, Otzma Yehudit leader
Gali Baharav-Miara Israeli Attorney General
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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background
Bans head to Supreme Court, Adalah vows challenge — The disqualifications are not final: individual candidate bans require Supreme Court approval, and lists can appeal. Adalah, the legal centre representing the parties, said it will challenge the votes when the court hears the cases next week.
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Attorney general finds no legal basis except against Abu Shehadeh
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said she found no legal basis to exclude Ra'am, the Joint List or Cassif, but said an October 2023 article by Abu Shehadeh warranted serious examination for possibly supporting armed struggle; Adalah disputes that the article contains any such call.
“political and unacceptable…”
— Ra'am, Arab-led party barred from the election · source -
first by Mastodon, 13h ago · also Bloomberg Politics, Al Jazeera
1 more headline
- Israel’s Election Commission Tries to Bar Leading Arab Parties Bloomberg Politics · 9h ago
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"The only democracy" https://www. aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/24/i srael-moves-to-bar-both-main-arab-lists-from-october-election # Israel # fascism
2 more of the top 3 · 6 posts in this stretch
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Because it's far right parties only, in the case it goes through, which is not a given, the supreme will (historically speaking) then allow them to run. So until now Israel has not barred Arab parties from running and there are systems in place to uphold democracy and allow them to run in case something breaks, in recent memory these systems have…
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https://www. europesays.com/3269910/ Israel moves to bar both main Arab lists from October election | Israel-Palestine conflict News # courts # elections # Government # Israel # IsraelPalestineConflict # MiddleEast # News # Palestine # Politics # RaceIssues # world # WorldNews # WorldTopics
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Abu Shehadeh denies backing armed struggle
Abu Shehadeh told Al Jazeera his exclusion was an attempt to silence criticism of government policy and said he would challenge it in court and through public protest, while denying to The Times of Israel that he supports violence.
“I have never called for violence or terrorism. I oppose armed struggle.”
— Sami Abu Shehadeh -
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Israeli election panel moves to bar Arab parties, candidates Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday to bar Arab-majority parties and two candidates from next month’s election, a… # EuropeSays # Headlines # News # Europe # Europa # EU # Israel # Elections # Palestine
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background
Joint List accuses Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir of vote suppression — The Joint List said Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir were trying to discourage Arab citizens from voting, and its leader Yousef Jabareen questioned how the committee could bar parties representing more than 1.25 million voters.
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Ra'am calls its exclusion political and unacceptable — Ra'am said the decision was intended to prevent it from influencing the balance of power and changing the government.
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Committee separately bars Cassif and Abu Shehadeh — In a separate vote the committee disqualified Hadash legislator Ofer Cassif and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh; the vote to bar Abu Shehadeh passed 31-4, breaking precedent when committee chair Justice Noam Sohlberg voted to disqualify rather than abstaining.
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background
Elections committee votes to bar Ra'am and Joint List — Israel's Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify the United Arab List (Ra'am), led by Mansour Abbas, and the Joint List, an alliance of Hadash, Ta'al and Balad, from the October 27 election.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Financial Times, 23h ago · also FT
1 more headline
and 1 smaller piece
What people are saying 3 voices from 1 site · best of 7 · verbatim
- Today
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Well, Western powers do, in fact, send billions of dollar to Russia. And yes, anyone who doesn’t cheers for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, will indeed be called a « russophobe » by the same Putin and his online supporters.
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"If it was vice versa then right wing parties would ban non-Arab left parties." they do *goalposts scraping on asphalt* "Did the Democrats call for bans?" they do *goalposts scraping on asphalt* "And who is in power?"
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Sorry bud, but if the far right parties in Germany tried banning Jewish parties from running every year but the Courts stopped them that’d still be pretty awful.