Facing ban from High Court, Balad’s Abou Shehadeh ends election candidacy

Sami Abou Shehadeh, the chair of the Arab nationalist Balad party, is ending his candidacy for the October 27 election after he faced the prospect of being banned, the party announced overnight Thursday-Friday.

“The withdrawal of his candidacy is not the end of Abou Shehadeh’s political struggle, and is not the end of Balad’s struggle,” the party said in a statement.

“Abu Shehadeh will continue to lead the party, Balad is continuing its project, and the Joint List continues in its struggle for Arabic representation and to contribute to the ousting of this government of Netanyahu and Ben Gvir,” it said.

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The coalition-controlled Central Elections Committee voted last month to disqualify Abou Shahadeh over an article he published the day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, which the attorney general has argued constitutes support for armed struggle against Israel. The vote drew broad support from both sides of the aisle.

Abou Shahadeh expressed regret over the article during a High Court hearing today on the ban, and denied supporting armed struggle.

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But the justices unanimously urged him to stand down from the election, telling him that a majority of the nine-justice panel would uphold his disqualification.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who personally argued the case against Abou Shahadeh before the court, celebrates the news of his candidacy ending, but slams the court for not rendering a decision on the matter.

Ben Gvir, in a video statement, vows to remove all “haters of Israel” from the Knesset.

The CEC is headed by a Supreme Court justice but is made up largely of representatives of Knesset factions, with the governing coalition holding a majority. Decisions to disqualify individual candidates require Supreme Court approval, while bans on entire party slates can be appealed to the court, which has overturned many such disqualifications in the past.

Justices on Wednesday also considered the CEC’s decisions last week to disqualify Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, as well as Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party and the Joint List — a bloc made up of Balad, Hadash and Ta’al. The court began with Abu Shehadeh’s case, followed by Cassif, the Joint List, and Ra’am later in the day.

Ariela Karmel contributed to this report.

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