High-profile case9/13/2026

Bid to Bar Arab Parties Could Reach Israel’s High Court

Likud and Otzma Yehudit have sought to disqualify Arab parties and, in Otzma Yehudit’s request, Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas from the 2026 elections. The Central Elections Committee has not yet decided the requests; if disqualification is approved, the decision may undergo High Court of Justice review.

Key facts

•Proceeding: Central Elections Committee disqualification requests
•Applicants: Likud and Otzma Yehudit
•Targets: Ra’am, the Joint List and Mansour Abbas
•Election: 2026 Knesset election
•Legal basis: Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset
•Current status: No decision reported

Who filed the requests

Likud announced that it would seek to bar Ra’am and the Joint List, arguing that the Knesset has no place for those who harm IDF soldiers and cannot call Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations. Otzma Yehudit separately filed a request against Ra’am and Mansour Abbas, alleging cooperation with terrorist bodies and citing a Registrar of Associations report concerning the party-linked Aid 48 association. These are allegations made by the applicant parties, not findings by a court or the Elections Committee.

The legal test

Under Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, a party or candidate may be disqualified on specified grounds. These are negating Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incitement to racism, or support for an armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or terrorist organization. A disqualification request begins before the plenum of the Central Elections Committee, chaired in this process by Justice Noam Sohlberg.

What happens next

The committee’s party representatives will vote on the requests. The source notes that the committee’s composition gives larger parties more representatives and says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc holds a majority. No decision on the current requests is reported in the source.

Possible High Court review

A committee decision may be subject to judicial review by the High Court of Justice. According to Ynet, the Court has generally overturned committee decisions disqualifying Arab lists because the constitutional rights to vote and stand for election make disqualification an exceptional measure. The report recalls that earlier exclusions involving Ra’am, Hadash-Ta’al and Balad were reversed by the Court, and predicts that any approval of the current requests would probably also be overturned.

What this means for you

For voters, the requests do not themselves remove any party or candidate from the ballot. Disqualification requires action by the Central Elections Committee and may then be reviewed by the High Court of Justice under a strict standard reflecting the rights to vote and be elected. Until a final decision is made, the source reports no change to ballot eligibility.

Find a lawyer for this topic

Case analysis based on court rulings