Jerusalem Post [1]/Israel News [2]/Israel Politics [3]
SUPREME COURT RECOMMENDS ARAB PARLIAMENTARIAN ABU SHEHADEH WITHDRAW
ELECTION BID
ALL NINE JUSTICES RECOMMEND THAT SAMI ABU SHEHADEH DROP HIS KNESSET
CANDIDACY, WITH A RESPONSE DUE BY FRIDAY MORNING.
Follow us on Google [4] A hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on
the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify Ra'am, Sami Abu
Shehadeh, MK Ofer Cassif and the Joint List from running in the upcoming
Knesset elections, October 1, 2026. (photo credit: YONATAN
SINDEL/FLASH90) BySARAH BEN-NUN [5] OCTOBER 1, 2026 10:25 Updated:
OCTOBER 1, 2026 21:11
A majority of the Supreme Court's nine-justice panel appeared prepared
on Thursday to approve the disqualification of Balad chairman Sami Abu
Shehadeh [6] from the October 27 election, while all nine justices urged
him to withdraw his candidacy before they rule.
The court convened Thursday to consider four election-disqualification
cases. The Central Elections Committee [7] voted last week to bar Abu
Shehadeh and MK Ofer Cassif and to exclude Ra'am and the Joint List. The
lists appealed the decisions, while the individual cases automatically
reached the Supreme Court because disqualifying a candidate requires its
approval.
Supreme Court President Isaac Amit said the justices unanimously agreed
that Abu Shehadeh's statements were "painful, outrageous and repugnant,"
but added that they differed on the legal outcome.
After the judges consulted during a break, Amit said an emerging
majority appeared to favor approving the disqualification. All nine
nevertheless joined the recommendation that Abu Shehadeh consider
withdrawing, which would remove the need for a reasoned judgment in his
case. The court gave him until 8 a.m. Friday to respond.
If he remains in the race, the Supreme Court must decide by Sunday. Amit
made the announcement after the court had concluded the hearing on Abu
Shehadeh's candidacy and begun hearing the case against MK Ofer Cassif.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir opposed the recommendation
and argued that the court should issue a ruling rather than allow Abu
Shehadeh to withdraw voluntarily.
The Joint List called the recommendation "disqualification in practice"
and urged Arab voters to respond with mass turnout.
All four cases arise under Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, which
allows disqualification for negating Israel's existence as a Jewish and
democratic state, inciting racism, or supporting armed struggle against
Israel. Supreme Court precedent reserves the measure for extreme cases
supported by clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence of a central
and dominant objective.
The panel comprised Amit and Justices Dafna Barak-Erez, Yael Willner,
Alex Stein, Khaled Kabub, David Mintz, Ofer Grosskopf, Gila
Canfy-Steinitz and Yechiel Kasher.
CASE HEARD BY NINE-JUSTICE PANEL AS PROTESTERS GATHER AGAINST BEN-GVIR
Dozens of protesters gathered outside in support of the Arab lists and
candidates. Some confronted Ben-Gvir [8], who called them "terror
supporters."
The committee's final vote to disqualify Abu Shehadeh was 31-4, after
its chairman, Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, took the
unusual step of voting in favor. Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and
State Attorney Amit Aisman asked the court to approve the decision only
on the armed-struggle ground.
Their position focused primarily on an article Abu Shehadeh published on
October 8, 2023, while the Hamas attack was still unfolding. It
described the attack as an event of military, political, and strategic
significance and discussed its potential political "fruits."
Barak-Erez asked how the court should reconcile what she described as
"objectively a horrific article" with the much stronger evidence
ordinarily required to bar a candidate, and what weight to give Abu
Shehadeh's roughly 30 years of public activity.
The Attorney-General's representative said an exceptional case could be
decided on a single item of "golden evidence," while acknowledging that
the other material might not meet the threshold individually.
Grosskopf asked whether authorities had taken any action when the
article appeared. The state said authorities had not known about it at
the time.
Representing Abu Shehadeh, Hassan Jabareen of the Adalah Legal Center
argued that one article did not constitute the required "critical mass"
of evidence when weighed against his client's nonviolent political
record [6].
Stein and Kasher questioned whether an article written spontaneously at
such a critical moment revealed Abu Shehadeh's genuine position more
clearly than his later explanations.
Abu Shehadeh said he had intended one of the article's most disputed
passages, about what "small, besieged Gaza" had achieved, as a warning
that Israel needed to reassess its policies and vulnerabilities. He
acknowledged that the passage had not conveyed that meaning and said he
opposed the attack when he wrote it.
"The article contains things that were wrong," he said. "I would not say
them today, and I should not have written it that way."
Canfy-Steinitz asked why he had not removed the article or published a
condemnation once the scale of the attack became clear. Abu Shehadeh
said it had been an intensely pressured period, that he had forgotten
about the article and that he regretted publishing it.
"Is this truly enough to bar him from running?" Jabareen asked. "Is he
really the most extreme parliamentarian?"
Abu Shehadeh concluded by telling the court that his political work was
directed toward "freedom, equality and peace for everyone."
"I have never called for violence, and I never will," he said. "I am
against it. Those are not my tools."
CEC VOTES TO BAR MK CASSIF, RA'AM, JOINT LIST
The committee voted 19-5, with two abstentions, to bar Cassif on the
grounds of negating Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and
supporting armed struggle.
Likud attorney Ilan Bombach argued that Cassif's accusations that Israel
had committed genocide, support for international proceedings and
sanctions, calls for boycotts, and statements about Palestinian
resistance formed a sustained pattern that crossed the statutory line.
The justices repeatedly pressed Bombach to connect the statements
directly to a statutory ground. Willner asked whether calling for a
boycott, without more, demonstrated support for terrorism or negation of
Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
The Attorney-General opposed Cassif's disqualification. Her
representative said his statements did not form the required "critical
mass," and that supporting the release of Palestinian security prisoners
was not itself support for their acts.
Cassif said the application used incomplete quotations and that, while
one cited statement discussed a claimed right to armed resistance, he
had expressly said he opposed violence and supported nonviolent
struggle.
The committee voted 18-5, with one abstention, to disqualify the Joint
List. The list argued that the application relied largely on material
previously considered and rejected, and on an outdated Balad platform
rather than the current alliance's platform, candidates and activities.
The judges challenged Likud after Bombach said Arab citizens could vote
for Likud or another Zionist slate rather than an Arab party.
Grosskopf asked whether Likud was proposing that Arab representatives
could enter the Knesset only through Jewish parties. When Bombach noted
that Arab parties could become part of a government, Grosskopf asked
whether that possibility was itself a reason to exclude them.
"I think the cat is out of the bag," Amit said.
The Joint List said its goals included fighting crime, advancing
equality and public investment, and supporting a Palestinian state
alongside Israel. Baharav-Miara opposed its disqualification.
The committee also voted 18-5, with one abstention, to disqualify Ra'am.
Applications filed by Otzma Yehudit, Likud and the Choosing Life Forum
sought to link it to the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, Aid 48
and other associations accused of aiding Hamas-linked entities.
Adalah attorney Suhad Bishara said Ra'am had operated in the political
arena since 1996 and had joined the Bennett-Lapid coalition. She called
the applications politically motivated and an attempt to create a legal
rule "out of nothing."
The judges pressed her to answer the factual allegations surrounding the
charities directly. Bishara said Ra'am denied any organizational or
financial affiliation with Aid 48 and that the associations in question
operated legally.
Jabareen said none of the cited employees had a relevant criminal record
and that the attorney-general and Shin Bet had found no such connection.
The attorney-general's representative, Anat Goldstein, said similar
applications had previously been rejected and that authorities had
examined the new material without finding evidence connecting Ra'am
itself to the associations' alleged conduct.
"It was not proven that one of Ra'am's goals, certainly not a dominant
goal, is support for armed struggle against Israel," Goldstein told the
court.
Otzma Yehudit attorney Ze'ev Wolf argued that Ra'am chairman Mansour
Abbas had refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization and described
former police major-general Yoav Segalovich, who recently joined the
Ra'am slate, as a "fig leaf."
Willner stressed that the case concerned the party, its platform and its
purposes. Kabub asked whether Abbas's failure to use the requested
terminology showed that he supported Hamas, while Barak-Erez said the
relevant inquiry was what a person had affirmatively supported.
The court concluded the hearings Thursday evening. It is expected to
decide on Cassif, the Joint List and Ra'am by Sunday.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-910271?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=October12026
Links:
------
[1] https://www.jpost.com/
[2] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news
[3] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy
[4] https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=https://www.jpost.com/
[5] https://www.jpost.com/author/sarah-ben-nun
[6] https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-910109
[7]
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-910175
[8]
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-910147
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