Israel's Supreme Court reinstated an Arab political party to the ballot on Friday after hours of uncertainty — uncertainty that followed the withdrawal of another Arab-Israeli candidate under pressure from the judiciary. A parliamentary committee tasked with vetting candidates had ruled several of them ineligible ahead of the 27 October general election, with those affiliated with the United Arab List among the names removed from the ballot that September.
On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision allowing both the United Arab List and a second Arab party to stand in the upcoming election. By a 7-2 margin, the court also restored the parliamentary candidacy of Ofer Cassif, a Jewish lawmaker who has repeatedly spoken out against how Palestinians have been treated under Israeli policy.
The two justices who voted against the majority contended that Cassif had voiced support for what they described as "armed struggle against the state of Israel" — a position they identified as meeting the threshold for disqualification. In the vast majority of cases where the committee has moved to bar candidates, the Supreme Court has reversed that decision.
During a court session held Thursday, members of the judiciary signalled they were prepared to uphold the prohibition against Sami Abu Shehadeh, the leader of the Palestinian Balad Party, a left-leaning political organisation. Abu Shehadeh's candidacy was formally withdrawn shortly thereafter.
A statement from the party argued that a judicially compelled withdrawal of Abu Shehadeh from the race — rather than a voluntary one — would have carried deeply damaging consequences for the country's political and parliamentary institutions. The disqualification bid against Abu Shehadeh centres on a piece he authored in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas-led assault on 7 October 2023, an attack that stood as the deadliest in the country's recorded history and drew a wide-ranging military response in Gaza.
In the article, Abu Shehadeh described the attack as a moment of notable historical consequence. He stated that he had provided no backing for the attack and flatly rejected any suggestion of involvement.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir took a prominent role in the effort to bar Abu Shehadeh from the election, describing the outcome as "a tremendous victory," while also stating that he would have preferred the Supreme Court to rule against Abu Shehadeh on substantive rather than procedural grounds.
Following the 2021 election, the United Arab List entered an unusually broad governing coalition that unseated Benjamin Netanyahu — a development that marked the first time an Arab party had held a place inside an Israeli government. Arab citizens of Israel comprise roughly one-fifth of the population and trace their roots to Palestinian communities that were displaced or departed during the country's establishment in 1948. The majority describe themselves as Palestinian and, up through 2020, had kept their distance from coalition-building inside Israeli government politics.
Raam — the United Arab List — placed Yoav Segalovitz, a Jewish Zionist candidate, on its ticket for the most recent election, a decision that had no recorded precedent for the party. Segalovitz had built a following in Arab communities through policing efforts directed at reducing crime. Political observers have noted that including Segalovitz on the ticket may lower the barriers for Netanyahu's opponents when it comes to building a coalition with Raam, the party headed by Mansour Abbas, a dentist-turned-politician whose Islamist orientation is generally described as pragmatic.
Adalah, a legal advocacy organisation focused on the rights of Arab citizens of Israel, described the disqualification effort as an attempt to undermine the political standing of Palestinian citizens and their elected representatives, and to use anti-Palestinian sentiment for electoral purposes.
