The Central Elections Committee in Israel approved to disqualify the Joint List, its constituent party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh, and Joint List MK Ofer Cassif, as well as the United Arab List from the elections, after several requests from the zionist parties.
The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) and the Communist Party of Israel issued a joint statement on Wednesday condemning the Central Elections Committee's approval.
"The wholesale approval by the Elections Committee of the demands of the fascist right to disqualify the lists representing the Arab masses and Jewish democratic forces is a blatant trampling on the most basic rules of democratic competition, as we fundamentally reject that the committee - which is a political committee made up of representatives of the current blocs in the Knesset - should grant its members the right to pursue voices that deviate from the consensus and oppose the occupation, racism and Jewish supremacy.
While we are proud of the Joint List and of being a fundamental component of it, we realize that the pursuit of it stems from the fascist right’s desire to thwart the voting percentage among Arab citizens and democratic forces, in a desperate attempt to cling to the reins of power. This is something that all opposition forces realize, as they have once again failed their moral test, confirming their unsuitability to offer a real alternative to Netanyahu and his allies.
We also emphasize our special pride in the member of the leadership of the Communist Party and the Front, MP Ofer Cassif, who has previously faced attempts to eliminate and exclude him without bowing his head, recording courageous positions that expose Israel and its crimes locally and internationally, and raise the voice of human conscience against the war crimes and daily violations of the occupation and the settler gangs against the rights of the Palestinian people and the right of their children to live in dignity.
We affirm our full support for our brother Sami Abu Shehadeh and his right to express his opinion as a leader in the Arab community. We see no legitimacy in disqualifying him and preventing him from running. We believe that the most dangerous thing that happened in today’s sessions was the vote by the head of the elections committee, Judge Noam Sohlberg, in favor of the decision to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, with the dangerous message this sends to the Supreme Court.
In this context, we note with contempt the vote of the “Democrats” party in favor of Ben-Gvir’s proposal to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, so that the party of General Yair Golan, Gilad Kraif, Naama Lazimi and Sumaya Bashir lined up behind “the minister with the noose,” along with all the Zionist parties from the coalition and the opposition, who did not even dare to defend the right of the “United” to run in the elections, and turned their backs on it and most of them were absent from the vote.
We call for a response to the disqualification with a broad protest campaign against political persecution, culminating in raising the voter turnout among Arab citizens and democratic forces, and supporting the Joint List, as it is the most persistent and systematic force in confronting the right wing and its partners in the coalition and the opposition. We affirm that we will do everything necessary to strengthen the Joint List and the partnership between its components on the basis of fairness and mutual respect among them.
Finally, despite our reservations about all the actions of the Zionist opposition, and the realization that they cannot be trusted with the votes of Arab citizens, we are committed to making every effort to bring down the fascist right-wing government and replace it with a less bad and dangerous one."
