Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Supreme Court: Arab parties back in race
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) Container 
ContributorPenguin 
Last EditedPenguin  Jan 21, 2009 01:16pm
Logged 0
CategoryAnnouncement
MediaNewspaper - Jerusalem Post
News DateWednesday, January 21, 2009 07:15:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionIn a ruling that disappointed right-wing leaders including Israel Beiteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman, the Supreme Court Wednesday overturned a decision to disqualify two Arab parties from running for the Knesset.
"Aharon Barak said that democracy doesn't have to kill itself in order to prove its strength. The court threw that statement in to the trash today, and gave the Arab parties a license to kill Israel as a Jewish and democratic state," Lieberman said following the court's decision. "We will not give up. In the next Knesset we will pass the Citizenship Law which will put a border on the disloyalty of some of the Israeli Arabs."

Lieberman led the MKs who had called on the Central Elections Committee to disqualify Balad and the United Arab List on the grounds that two parties "support an armed struggle against Israel and that their political platform aims to undermine Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state." Lieberman, whose campaign slogan is "no loyalty, no citizenship," emerged victorious when the Central Elections Committee voted in favor of the parties' disqualification last week, but within hours of the vote, MK Ahmad Tibi of UAL promised that the decision would be appealed.

Ultimately two appeals - both submitted by the Israeli-Arab rights group Adalah - were filed earlier this week. Adalah claimed that the decision to disqualify Balad and UAL was a violation of their rights and ignored the opinion of Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz that there was no concrete proof to support the prevention of the two lists from running for Knesset.
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION