Arab MK, Yigal Amir party hope for approval to run
The Supreme Court will convene on Wednesday morning to consider overturning the Central Elections Committee’s decision last Wednesday to prohibit both MK Heba Yazbak of the Joint List’s Balad party and the Free Trial party of Larissa Trembovler Amir from running in the March 2 election.
The committee, which is made up of representatives of parties, voted 13 to 0 to disqualify the Free Trial party of Trembovler Amir, the wife of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir. Trembovler Amir said Wednesday that she hoped the Supreme Court would overturn the decision, noting that Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said there was no reason to prevent the party from running.
“The Knesset vote was absurd, with religious and right-wing parties leaving before the vote and Labor, Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu voting that my party goes against the Jewish-democratic nature of the state,” she said. “The question is whether the Supreme Court will make its decision based on honest, good sense.”
The disqualification of Yazbak
for her statements allegedly supporting terrorism and terrorists passed by a vote of 28-7, with the support of representatives from Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Blue and White and Labor. Only Joint List and Meretz representatives opposed her disqualification.
Lawyers from Adalah – the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed arguments on behalf of Yazbak and an affidavit from Joint List MK Ayman Odeh in support of Yazbak to the Supreme Court on Monday.
“The committee’s decision to disqualify MK Heba Yazbak was purely political in nature and lacks any legal grounds,” Adalah said in a statement. “The move was driven by racism and constitutes a populist attempt by the right wing to win votes by inciting against Palestinian Arab citizens and their elected political representatives. Adalah will argue before nine Supreme Court justices, demanding they overturn the decision and allow MK Yazbak to run.”
Mandelblit sought clarification regarding remarks Yazbak made to Channel 13 News that he wrote could be interpreted as endorsing attacks on IDF soldiers.
“International law stipulates the right of the Palestinian people to struggle for freedom from occupation – and illegal occupation – while emphasizing that occupation is the source of violence and bloodshed,” she said in the controversial interview. “I will fight and work to end the occupation and achieve a just peace.”
“Everyone who listened to the interview realizes that there was no incitement to violence or killing, and the campaign launched by the right wing is a new attempt at incitement through misinformation,” Yazbak said.
Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Oded Forer, who requested the disqualification of Yazbak along with Likud MK Ophir Katz, told the committee Yazbak should not be permitted to run because she repeatedly shared posts that support terrorism.