Top Court President Recommends Arab Party Leader to Withdraw From Knesset Run - Israel Elections 2026
Israel's Supreme Court President Isaac Amit recommended Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh on Thursday to withdraw his candidacy for Knesset, citing an emerging consensus among a panel of justices to uphold his disqualification.
Justice Amit said Abu Shehadeh could respond until early on Friday.
The chief justice's proposal came after the court heard an appeal Thursday against the Central Elections Committee's decision to bar Abu Shehadeh from running for the Knesset.
The Balad party leader's candidacy was struck down over an article he wrote immediately after the October 7 attack, because it constituted support for armed struggle or the actions of a terrorist organization against Israel. This was a central issue during last week's hearing at the Central Elections Committee, which is a political body controlled by the governing coalition and is led by Justice Noam Sohlberg, the top court's deputy president.
In the hearing, Abu Shehadeh vehemently disputed the allegation that he supports armed conflict against Israel, citing 30 years of human rights activism.
When asked if he regrets publishing the article, Abu Shehadeh affirmed that he was. When then asked why he didn't remove or condemn the article publicly for three years, he said, "I forgot that article. As a human being, I don't know how I wrote it."
Justice Alex Stein asked Abu Shehadeh if Hamas is a terrorist organization, to which he responded that "Hamas as an organization does many terror acts of which I oppose."
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke against Abu Shehadeh, saying that the article he wrote "speaks for itself," and added that sometimes "a single piece of evidence is sufficient." Ben-Gvir also said that "Abu Shehadeh should not only be disqualified, but should also be investigated."
Attorney Yonatan Berman, a representative of Israel's attorney general, also spoke against the Balad chairman. Berman concurred with Ben-Gvir's position that the article is "golden evidence" which should be weighed heavilly, but the justices pushed back and argued that Abu Shehadeh's years of peaceful activism should also be considered.
In the conclusion of the hearing, Abu Shehadeh said, "I call on all the justices and request to give me the opportunity to be elected again on the basis of what I believe in as a human who fights for human rights of all humans and is interested in forwarding freedom, justice and equality for the two peoples."
While the elections committee voted in favor of disqualifying Abu Shehadeh, it rejected similar requests filed against Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit, Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism and Yair Golan's Democrats.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara supported Abu Shehadeh's disqualification, saying his October 2023 article could constitute support for armed struggle by a terrorist organization and provide grounds for disqualification.
In the article, which Abu Shehadeh published on October 8, 2023, he described the Hamas attack as "an important historic event militarily, politically and strategically." Under Israel's Basic Law on the Knesset, a candidate or party may be barred from an election for rejecting Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state, inciting racism or supporting armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or terrorist organization.
Israel's election is set to take place on October 27. The latest polls project that the Joint List would win nine seats and the United Arab List would win five seats.