The racist right-wing parties in the coalition and the Zionist opposition have submitted requests to disqualify the Joint List and Ra’am. The Likud announced yesterday (Sunday, September 13) that it will submit requests to disqualify the Joint List and Islamist Ra’am party from running in the elections. The party claimed that “in Israel’s Knesset, there is no room for those who harm IDF soldiers.” “They are the natural partners of Gadi Eisenkot, with whom he wants to establish a government along with Yair Golan and Liberman. 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 far-right Zionist opposition, MK Oded Forer, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu faction, submitted a request to disqualify MK Dr. Ofer Cassif (Hadash) from running for the 26th Knesset. “The request focuses primarily on Cassif’s ongoing support for an armed struggle against the State of Israel,” stated an announcement on behalf of MK Avigdor Liberman’s party.
Joint List Chairman Prof. Yousef Jabareen (center), alongside Sami Abu Shehadeh and MK Ahmad Tibi, while submitting the candidate list to the Central Elections Committee last Tuesday, September 8, 2026 (Photo: Zo Haderekh)
Following the disqualification requests, the Joint List spokesperson stated: “The crime gang known as ‘Likud’ is promoting yet another rotten and racist move by a party that has completely lost the public’s trust and brought nothing but destruction and death to us all. Netanyahu knows he is on his way to losing the elections and therefore spares no 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 above all, of the idea that it is possible to live here differently – Arabs and Jews together. No campaign of incitement and no fascist disqualification attempt will stop us on our way to toppling the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich government, and when they try to disqualify us – the more we will multiply and the more we will spread,” they emphasized.
The process of disqualifying a party or a candidate in Israel begins in the plenary of the Central Elections Committee. Any party is entitled to submit a disqualification request for a party or a candidate to the Central Elections Committee in accordance with the Basic Law: “The Knesset”. According to the procedure, the decision comes up for discussion in the plenary of the Central Elections Committee, headed by the chairman, Justice Noam Sohlberg. However, there is a majority in the committee for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right bloc, as the committee’s plenaries are composed of party representatives based on their representation in the outgoing Knesset. Following the decision, an appeal can be made to the High Court of Justice, which in the past and usually has overturned disqualification decisions due to the constitutional right to vote and be elected, and because disqualification is an exceptional measure.
In previous elections, the committee had already disqualified the candidacy of Hadash, Ta’al, Balad, Ra’am, and MK Cassif. However, the High Court of Justice overturned the decisions. In 2021, before the last elections, Likud announced they would not participate in the vote, claiming: “In every election, Likud voted to disqualify the Joint List, but the High Court always validates it, and the Joint List uses the disqualification to grow stronger and bring in votes. This time, Likud will take the votes of Israel’s Arab citizens.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=33554
