Israel moves to bar both main Arab lists from October election

Excluding Ra’am and the Joint List leaves Palestinian citizens in Israel without major Knesset representation options.

A television channel advertisement featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and his main rival, opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot, in Ramat Gan, Israel, on September 23, 2026 [Oded Balilty/AP]

Israel’s Central Elections Committee has voted to bar both main Arab electoral lists from next month’s election, putting the political representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel before the Supreme Court weeks before voters go to the polls.

The committee voted on Wednesday to disqualify the United Arab List, or Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, and the Joint List, an alliance of the Arab-led Hadash, Ta’al and Balad parties. It also voted separately to bar Hadash legislator Ofer Cassif and Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh. The election is scheduled for October 27.

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The bans are not final. Decisions against individual candidates require Supreme Court approval, while lists can appeal their exclusion. Adalah, the legal centre representing the parties and candidates, says it will challenge the votes when the court hears the cases next week.

Ra’am called its exclusion “political and unacceptable”, saying the decision was intended to prevent it from influencing the balance of power and changing the government.

The Joint List said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir were trying to discourage Arab citizens from voting “because they fear our ability to bring down the government of genocide and racism”. Its leader, Yousef Jabareen, questioned how the committee could bar parties representing more than 1.25 million voters.

Abu Shehadeh told Al Jazeera that his exclusion was an attempt to silence criticism of government policy and said the decisions would be challenged in court and through public protest. Rejecting the allegation that he supports violence, he told The Times of Israel: “I have never called for violence or terrorism. I oppose armed struggle.”

The petitions invoke Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, which allows a list or candidate to be excluded for denying Israel’s existence as a “Jewish and democratic state”, inciting racism or supporting armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or an organisation designated as terrorist.

Netanyahu’s Likud party sought to disqualify the Joint List and Cassif, and was among the groups that filed against Ra’am. Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party also sought to bar Abu Shehadeh. Adalah disputes the allegations. It says the case against Ra’am presents no evidence that the party supports armed struggle, while the Joint List petition relies heavily on old material, including bills proposed in previous Knessets.

Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a session at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, July 16, 2026 [File: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Abu Shehadeh’s case has drawn a different response. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara found no legal basis to exclude the other targeted parties and candidates but said an article he published on October 8, 2023, which she said may constitute support for armed struggle, warranted serious examination. The committee voted 31-4 to bar him. Adalah says the article contains no such call.

The push to bar Abu Shehadeh drew support from parties outside Netanyahu’s coalition. According to The Times of Israel , opposition parties voted to disqualify him, as did Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the elections committee. The vote broke with decades of precedent in which committee chairs abstained from disqualification votes. Abu Shehadeh’s exclusion still requires approval from the full Supreme Court.

Why the Arab vote matters

Ra’am joined the coalition government formed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid in 2021, helping end Netanyahu’s 12 consecutive years in office in 2021, although Abbas had previously discussed cooperation with Netanyahu as well. Now Likud itself has filed petitions against Arab representation, while Ben-Gvir’s party has pursued separate exclusions.

A Channel 12 poll published on Tuesday projected seven seats for the Joint List and five for Ra’am, against 50 for Netanyahu’s current coalition bloc. The 12 projected Arab seats would not automatically back Netanyahu’s opponents, as mainstream opposition parties remain divided over whether to govern with Arab support. But removing both lists would change the possible routes to the 61-seat majority needed to form a government.

The Supreme Court has overturned previous committee bans on Arab lists and candidates, including Balad’s exclusion in 2022. It must now decide whether the evidence meets the legal threshold for barring the two principal lists seeking to represent Palestinian citizens of Israel. The ruling will determine who can appear on the October ballot.

如果将拉姆党和联合名单排除在外，在以色列的巴勒斯坦公民就没有重要的议会代表权选择。

2026年9月23日，以色列拉马特甘，一则电视广告中出现了以色列总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡（右）和他的主要竞争对手、反对派候选人加迪·艾森科特。[Oded Balilty/AP]

以色列中央选举委员会投票决定禁止两个主要的阿拉伯选民名单参加下个月的选举，这使得以色列巴勒斯坦公民的政治代表权问题在选民投票前几周摆在了最高法院面前。

委员会周三投票决定取消由曼苏尔·阿巴斯领导的联合阿拉伯名单（Ra'am）以及由阿拉伯人主导的哈达什党、塔阿勒党和巴拉德党组成的联合名单的参选资格。委员会还分别投票决定禁止哈达什党议员奥弗·卡西夫和巴拉德党领导人萨米·阿布·谢哈德参选。选举定于10月27日举行。

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这些禁令并非最终决定。针对个别候选人的决定需要最高法院批准，而候选人名单则可以对被排除的决定提出上诉。代表各政党和候选人的法律中心Adalah表示，将在下周法院审理此案时对投票结果提出质疑。

拉姆称将其排除在外是“出于政治原因，不可接受的”，并表示该决定旨在防止其影响权力平衡和改变政府。

联合名单组织称，以色列总理内塔尼亚胡和极右翼国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔试图阻止阿拉伯公民投票，“因为他们害怕我们有能力推翻这个种族灭绝和种族主义政府”。该组织领导人优素福·贾巴林质疑，委员会怎么能禁止代表超过125万选民的政党参选。

阿布·谢哈德告诉半岛电视台，他被排除在外是为了压制对政府政策的批评，并表示将通过法律途径和公众抗议来挑战这一决定。他否认自己支持暴力，并告诉《以色列时报》：“我从未呼吁过暴力或恐怖主义。我反对武装斗争。”

这些请愿书援引了《基本法》第 7A 条：以色列议会，该条允许将否认以色列作为“犹太民主国家”存在、煽动种族主义或支持敌对国家或被指定为恐怖组织的组织对以色列进行武装斗争的名单或候选人排除在外。

内塔尼亚胡领导的利库德集团试图取消联合名单党和卡西夫党的参选资格，并且是向拉阿姆党提出申诉的团体之一。本-格维尔领导的犹太力量党也试图禁止阿布·谢哈德党参选。阿达拉党否认了这些指控。该党表示，针对拉阿姆党的诉讼并未提供任何证据表明该党支持武装斗争，而联合名单党的申诉则大量依赖于陈旧材料，包括之前几届议会提出的法案。

2026年7月16日，以色列国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔在耶路撒冷以色列议会（Knesset）会议上与总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡交谈。[图片：Ronen Zvulun/路透社]

阿布·谢哈德的案件引发了不同的反应。总检察长加利·巴哈拉夫-米亚拉认为没有法律依据排除其他被针对的政党和候选人，但她表示，阿布·谢哈德于2023年10月8日发表的一篇文章可能构成对武装斗争的支持，因此需要认真审查。委员会以31票赞成、4票反对的投票结果决定禁止他参选。阿达拉则表示，该文章中并未包含此类呼吁。

禁止阿布·谢哈德参选的行动得到了内塔尼亚胡执政联盟之外各党派的支持。据《以色列时报》报道，反对党投票反对他参选，最高法院大法官诺姆·索尔伯格（同时也是选举委员会主席）也投了赞成票。这一投票打破了数十年来委员会主席在取消参选资格投票中弃权的惯例。阿布·谢哈德的排除仍需最高法院全体法官批准。

阿拉伯选民的投票为何如此重要

拉姆于2021年加入由纳夫塔利·贝内特和亚伊尔·拉皮德组建的联合政府，帮助结束了内塔尼亚胡连续12年的执政，尽管阿巴斯此前也曾与内塔尼亚胡讨论过合作。如今，利库德集团自身也已提起诉讼，反对阿拉伯裔代表的参选，而本-格维尔领导的政党则采取了其他方式排除阿拉伯裔代表。

周二公布的第12频道民调预测，联合名单将获得7个席位，拉姆联盟将获得5个席位，而内塔尼亚胡目前的执政联盟将获得50个席位。预计阿拉伯国家将获得的12个席位并不会自动支持内塔尼亚胡的反对派，因为主流反对党在是否接受阿拉伯国家的支持执政的问题上仍存在分歧。但如果取消这两个名单，则组建政府所需的61个席位的可能途径将会改变。

最高法院推翻了此前各委员会对阿拉伯候选人名单和候选人的禁令，包括2022年对巴拉德党的排除。现在，最高法院必须裁定现有证据是否达到禁止两个主要巴勒斯坦裔以色列公民候选人名单参选的法律门槛。该裁决将决定哪些候选人可以出现在10月份的选票上。