CP of Israel responds to efforts to remove Joint List from elections

Likud announced on Sunday that it will submit requests to disqualify the Joint List and the Joint Opposition from running in the elections. The party claimed that "there is no place in the Israeli Knesset for those who harm IDF soldiers." "They are Gadi Eisenkot's natural partners, with whom he wants to form a government together with Yair Golan and Lieberman. This must not be allowed to happen," they added. The chairman of Otzma Yehudit, Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, also submitted a similar request.

In the opposition, MK Oded Forer, chairman of the Yisrael Beiteinu faction, submitted a request to disqualify the candidacy of MK Dr. Ofer Cassif (Hadash) from running for the 26th Knesset. "The request focuses first and foremost on Cassif's ongoing support for an armed struggle against the State of Israel," said a statement from Avigdor Lieberman's right-wing party.

According to Al-Ittihad, fa spokesperson for the Joint List said: "The crime family called 'Likud' is promoting another rotten and racist move by a party that has completely lost the public's trust and has brought us all only destruction and death. Netanyahu knows that he is on his way to losing the elections, and therefore is not sparing any means to prevent this moment." "In recent years, the Arab public in the country has been subjected to a wild campaign of incitement, delegitimization, and relentless attempts to harm its representatives in the Knesset. They are not only afraid of losing power; they are afraid of our influence, of our shared vision, of the equality we offer, and especially of the idea that it is possible to live here differently - Arabs and Jews together. No campaign of incitement and no fascist attempt to disqualify will stop us on the path to overthrowing the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich government, and when they try to disqualify us - we will multiply and break through," they emphasized.

According to Zo Khadarek, MK Ofer Cassif responded on Monday to a request to disqualify him from running in the upcoming elections by a member of Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, who previously led an attempt to remove him from the Knesset in 2024, during MK Cassif's opposition to the war of extermination on Gaza, by saying, "My voice and the voice of the Arab masses and the Jewish democratic forces are stronger than disqualification and cancellation."

The request to disqualify MK Cassif comes a day after Likud submitted a request to disqualify the Joint List, in a clear alignment between the ruling party and Lieberman’s party in political persecution and an attempt to silence principled voices opposing injustice and occupation and calling for equality and peace.

MK Cassif said: “The attempt to disqualify my candidacy is nothing but a pathetic display of the despicable political practices of those who claim to belong to the ‘Change Bloc’ and oppose ‘Kahanism’ and fascism, while in practice they align themselves with those same forces, competing with them for the title of most right-wing and extreme.”

He added: “How can someone like me, who openly and consistently calls for a humanitarian stance that opposes violence and supports peaceful struggle, be labeled as a ‘supporter of terrorism,’ while the person who filed the delisting request and his associates, who legitimize state terrorism and war crimes, appear as if they are the opponents of terrorism?”

MP Cassif concluded by saying: “No political persecution or attempt to silence me will deter me. I will continue to present a real alternative, the struggle against occupation, war and violence, and to raise a clear and consistent voice calling for peace, true equality and the protection of marginalized groups.”