Citing his support for the October 7 massacre and a call to replicate Hamas’s “success,” Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir filed a petition to the Central Elections Committee seeking to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh from running in the elections for the 26th Knesset.
The petition includes a “mountain” of evidence: an article Abu Shehadeh published the day after the massacre, statements praising terrorists, support for Arabs convicted of terrorism offenses, justification of rioters during Operation Guardian of the Walls, and activity aimed at eliminating Israel’s Jewish character.
The petition, filed by attorneys Ze’ev Wolf and David Bavli, is based on two grounds under Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset: negating Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state and supporting an armed struggle by an enemy state or terrorist organization against Israel.
At the center of the petition is an article Abu Shehadeh published on October 8, 2023, while Hamas terrorists were still inside Israel. In the article, he called the Hamas attack “an important historic event from a military, political, and strategic perspective” and wrote: “If small, besieged Gaza managed to do this… others can do it more effectively and simply.”
The petition states: “While Israel was still in the midst of a national disaster, Abu Shehadeh praised Hamas’s achievements and effectively called on others to learn from them and replicate them.”
The petition also cites several statements made by Abu Shehadeh after the massacre, asserting that “the real battle was decided on October 7,” calling Gaza’s endurance “a legendary achievement,” and referring to Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters.”
The petition cites former High Court President Esther Hayut, who previously ruled that legislation proposed by Balad expressed a rejection of Israel’s core characteristics as a Jewish state. It also cites former High Court President Aharon Barak, who ruled that a candidate who granted “political support or legitimacy to an armed struggle against the state” should be disqualified.
According to the petitioners, the evidence meets the unequivocal evidentiary threshold required to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, and after October 7, the disqualification provision should not be interpreted in a way that renders it meaningless.
Otzma Yehudit chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stated: “To this day, the High Court has repeatedly approved all the terror supporters who sought to run in Knesset elections, in violation of the law. The time has come for a fundamental change. We will put an end to the phenomenon of terror supporters taking over the Israeli Knesset. Abu Shehadeh is welcome to join his friend Azmi Bishara.”
Bishara was a prominent Arab-Iraeli MK whose parliamentary immunity was lifted in an unprecedented move in 2001 and was formally accused of national security crimes, including organizing an illegal delegation to visit Syria, an enemy state, and calling in his speech to other Arab countries to escalate their violent conflict against Israel. He subsequently fled to Qatar.
Last week, Otzma Yehudit submitted a request to disqualify Ra’am and MK Mansour Abbas from running in the elections for similar reasons.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
