News
Controversial candidates returned to election race by Supreme Court
The Joint Arab List’s Haneen Zoabi and Yahad’s Baruch Marzel were yesterday reinstated as Knesset candidates after the Supreme Court overturned last week’s Central Election Committee decisions to ban them both from running.
Current MK Zoabi has a history of divisive activity, including participation in the infamous Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza in 2010 and was suspended last year from parliamentary activity for six months. Accusing her of incitement to violence and support for terrorism, Likud and Yisrael Beitenu petitioned for Zoabi’s disqualification, also supported by Zionist Union, Yesh Atid and ultra-Orthodox parties.
Meanwhile, the Coalition Against Racism submitted a request to ban Marzel, on the grounds that he is a former activist in the extremist Kach movement, which was banned as a racist organisation in the 1980s and had never repudiated their views. The request was also approved by the Central Election Committee, a politicised body with representatives of the current Knesset parties sitting and voting on the committee.
However, in an expected ruling, the decisions disqualifying both Zoabi and Marzel were overturned yesterday by the Supreme Court, by a majority of eight justices to one. Joint Arab List head Aiman Oudeh said that letting Zoabi run is “a victory over racism and hatred,” while Yachad leader Eli Yishai said it had been a “crime” to disqualify Marzel’s “legitimate candidacy.”
Also yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took aim at Zionist Union leader Tzipi Livni. He claimed that the recent “media circus” surrounding a State Comptroller report into his expenses is a “smoke screen intended to let Livni sneak into the Prime Minister’s Office.” He accused Zionist Union of “trying to hide Livni” as she is “a danger to Israel.” In response, Livni said that, “Destroying Israel’s relations with the United States is a danger to Israel, the social gaps are a danger to Israel, poverty is a danger to Israel, and tunnels under the houses of Gaza-border residents are a danger,” all of which occurred during Netanyahu’s tenure.