Disqualification of Palestinian-Israeli candidates from poll ‘new threshold of suppression’

Ziad Abu Rish, an associate professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Bard College, says the Israeli Supreme Court’s position advising Palestinian-Israeli politician Sami Abu Shehadeh to withdraw from upcoming elections marks a new threshold of suppression for Palestinian voting rights in Israel.

“Palestinian citizens of Israel are really treated as third-class citizens in a variety of ways, but primarily because they are not Jewish,” Abu Rish said after Abu Shehadeh, the leader of the Palestinian Balad Party, withdrew his candidacy.

The move came after the Supreme Court indicated it would uphold his disqualification by the Central Elections Committee during an appeal process, prompting him to step down rather than face a formal judicial ban.

“Israel is set up as a Jewish state and I think it’s important to recognize that what we are seeing today, in some ways, represents continuity with historic marginalization and attempts to repress Palestinian political organizing within Israel. But it also marks a new threshold in that level of suppression,” Abu Rish said.

Last week, the elections committee voted to disqualify individual candidates, including Abu Shehadeh and parliament member Ofer Cassif, a Jewish politician from the Arab-Jewish Hadash party.

In January 2023, Netanyahu announced the reforming of the judicial system, which opponents say the reform will severely undermine the country's democracy by weakening the judicial system, the only tool for keeping the government's use of its powers in check.

In reality, Netanyahu imposed the reforms as a tactic to undermine the process of the prosecution against him over cases of bribery and corruption, which was opened in 2019. He wanted judges at the supreme court whom views are in line with his personal and political interest.

Arab-Israeli party leader drops election bid

Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh has withdrawn from the October 27 Knesset elections after the Supreme Court warned it could issue a ruling disqualifying him.

Last week, the Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify Israel’s two main Arab-majority parties.

Israeli court ruling marks new suppression of Palestinian voting rights

Palestinian-Israeli politician and leader of the Balad Party, Sami Abu Shehadeh, has decided to withdraw his candidacy for the Israeli Knesset. Israel’s central elections committee had disqualified him from running.

Ziad Abu Rish is an associate professor of Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College. He says the Israeli Supreme Court’s position marks a news threshold of suppression for Palestinian voting rights.

Netanyahu office on July 3, 2017: "Israel is a democracy, the only true democracy in the Middle East, and as such we have special ties with the democratic world."

There has always been incitement inside Israel against the Palestinians by saying that they are linked to Gaza

Arab-Israeli party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh has framed his withdrawal as an attempt to save the small margin left for Palestinians to seek political representation.

But there has always been incitement inside Israel against the Palestinians by saying that they are linked to Gaza, and this has culminated in the disbarment of all parties running in the elections.

But it does not stop there. As we’ve been seeing inside Israel, there are attempts to replicate what the Israeli settlers do in the occupied West Bank inside Israel under a plan that they call ‘Judaization of the Galilee,’ but what it really means is trying to push Palestinians out of their lands for Israelis.

They believe that more Palestinian participation will raise the threshold for parties entering the Knesset.

So the more people vote, the less chance the small right-wing parties have, and that’s the main fear, and that’s why they’ve been trying to take and decrease the momentum rather than Palestinian Israelis going to the polls.

"by saying that they are linked to Gaza"

Two elements in this Israeli primitive behavior:

• Conflation
• Always blame those who are even not the victim but has been made a victim.

Israel Supreme Court overturns ban on Arab election lists

Israel’s Supreme Court has unanimously overturned the decision by Israel’s Central Elections Committee to disqualify Arab electoral lists and candidates from the parliamentary election, according to Israel media reports.

The court on Thursday began hearing appeals against the decisions after the committee had disqualified Israel’s two main Arab-majority political lists – Ra’am and the Joint List, which is an alliance of Hadash, Ta’al and Balad.

Separately, it moved to disqualify Abu Shehadeh and parliament member Ofer Cassif, a Jewish politician from the Arab-Jewish Hadash party.

By a 7-2 majority, the court also approved Cassif’s candidacy.

‘I didn’t have any other choice’ – Balad leader on Israeli election exit

Sami Abu Shehadeh said he withdrew from Israel’s October 27 election because the Supreme Court told him it would uphold his disqualification. He accused the court of serving the policies of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Speaking from Jaffa, the Balad leader said, “I didn’t have any other choice. The Israeli Supreme Court told me the decision that anyhow, they are going to disqualify me.” He said, “They want to silence the Arab votes; they want to silence the Arab voices.”

“And because I have a different narrative, because I think differently, because I’m not adopting the Zionist narrative with their terminology and their exact words on how to explain what happened they banned me”

Abu Shehadeh said the court’s handling of his case showed unequal treatment. “The Supreme Court yesterday in Israel made it clear for me and for the world that in this Jewish state, there are two laws: one for the Arabs and one for the Jews.”

He said the motive was electoral arithmetic. “If the Arab Palestinian community will participate more in the next elections, this will be the highest wall that will prevent them from coming back to rule,” he said, referring to Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir.

US peace envoy slams media reports, says focused on ‘pursuing peace’

US Special Envoy for Peace and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has denied media reports on alleged investments in Israeli defence companies.

Kushner, in a post on X, said the story, published by CNN, was “deeply misleading”.

“Misleading stories will not distract me from the work President Trump asked me to do: help end wars, bring people together and pursue peace. That work is too important,” he added.

US envoy Jared Kushner holds the largest stake in Israeli firm supporting Israel’s military, CNN reports

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a top US peace negotiator for the Middle East, has been found to hold a significant stake in an Israeli firm investing in companies supporting Israel’s military, according to a CNN report.

Kushner’s investment group, Affinity Partners, doubled its stake last year in the Tel Aviv-based firm Phoenix Financial.

Records disclosed by CNN – obtained using Israeli financial transparency laws – found that Phoenix invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.

Kushner and fellow US special envoy Steve Witkoff brokered the “ceasefire” deal between Israel and Hamas last October.

Israel continues to attack the Gaza Strip on a near-daily basis, despite the “ceasefire”.

US Senator Bernie Sanders accuses pro-Israel lobby group of targeting politicians critical of Netanyahu

US Senator Bernie Sanders has accused the American pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC of planning to spend $233m against politicians who speak out in opposition to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“They spent $33 million to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan primary. They lost,” Sanders said in an X post, referring to the state’s outspoken Democratic Senate nominee and Netanyahu critic who will stand in the coming midterms.

“They are going to keep losing. NO MORE U.S. MILITARY AID FOR ISRAEL,” Sanders added.

US Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during the March on Washington rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on August 28, 2026 [File: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP]