Israel's Balad party pulls leader from election after court warning

Israel's Arab Balad party agreed Thursday evening to withdraw its leader Sami Abu Shehadeh from the October 27 general elections after Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit warned that a majority of judges favored upholding his disqualification, Israeli media reported. The decision followed a Sept. 23 vote by Israel's Central Elections Committee to disqualify Abu Shehadeh and Joint List lawmaker Ofer Cassif, alongside moves to exclude the Joint List and the United Arab List from the poll.

The court gave Abu Shehadeh until Friday to withdraw voluntarily, cautioning that otherwise it would issue a ruling barring his candidacy, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN. Channel 12 reported that the National Democratic Assembly — Balad's formal name — accepted the court's proposal to end the parliamentary bid.

Article published after Hamas attack

The case against Abu Shehadeh centers on an article he published on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. Right-wing groups, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party, sought his disqualification, alleging that the article expressed support for the attack.

Speaking before the court Thursday, Abu Shehadeh said he did not support "armed struggle" and acknowledged that a paragraph in the article had been incorrectly worded. He stated his intention was to call for moving the conflict toward a political process, according to KAN. The broadcaster reported that judges considered some passages in the article to provoke "displeasure and revulsion."

Protests outside Supreme Court

Adalah, the rights group representing Abu Shehadeh, argued that the request to bar him relied on a single article that contained no explicit call to support armed struggle. Israel's attorney general supported disqualifying his candidacy, according to court reports.

Arab lawmakers and supporters held a demonstration outside the Supreme Court in West Jerusalem as hearings on the disqualification decisions began. Ben-Gvir arrived at the scene and waved an Israeli flag in front of the protesters, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

Under Israeli electoral rules, a decision to disqualify an individual candidate takes effect only after High Court approval. The High Court has previously overturned Central Elections Committee decisions excluding Arab candidates and parties. Arab citizens make up about 20% of Israel's population. Voters will elect members of the 120-seat Knesset on Oct. 27.