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Israel's Central Election Committee (CEC) has voted in favor of barring the country's major Arab political parties from contesting elections ahead of the parliamentary elections.
This decision came after petitions filed by Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party and other right-wing organizations.
The political groups that the CEC has voted in favor of disqualifying from contesting the elections include the Joint List and the Ram (United Arab List) party.
Apart from this, it has also been decided to disqualify prominent Arab leader Sami Abu Shehadeh and leftist leader of Arab-Jewish party Hadash Ofer Kassif from contesting the elections.
This development has come at a time when election surveys do not show any major political party getting the required 61 seats for a majority in the 120-member Knesset.
In such a situation, the role of Arab parties can be important in forming the government after the elections.
On what basis were Arab parties barred from elections?
Under Israel's current Knesset election law, any political party, citizen 18 years of age or older, or the Attorney General have the right to file a petition with the CEC seeking to bar a party or candidate from contesting elections. Such a petition can be approved by 51 percent majority of CEC members.
Under Article 7A of Israel's Basic Law, a party or candidate can be barred from running in elections if its objectives or activities negate Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state.
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Apart from this, disqualification can also be done on the grounds of promoting racial discrimination or supporting the armed struggle of an enemy country or 'terrorist organization' against Israel.
These provisions have been cited in the petitions filed against Arab parties and related candidates.
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However, Arab leaders and critics of the decision say the move is politically motivated and aimed at weakening the political voice of Arab voters. They claim that this may benefit the right wing camp in the elections.
Ram Party Chairman Mansour Abbas described the move as "politically motivated, illegal and undemocratic". He alleged that its aim was to prevent the formation of a government that could replace Netanyahu's government.
Senior American leader and Democratic Party senator Bernie Sanders believes that by banning Arab parties, Netanyahu has suppressed the voice of Palestinian citizens.
Bernie wrote on Twitter, "Israel's election committee banned both major Arab parties four weeks before the election. Netanyahu and his hard-right allies want an Israel where Palestinian citizens have no voice. Israel should no longer provide military assistance to the United States."
Professor Barak Medina of the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said on Monday that the purpose of this provision is not to punish, but to prevent possible risks in the future.
Medina also argued, speaking to The Jerusalem Post, that the available evidence does not meet the standard required to disqualify any candidate from running in the elections.
According to him, if a candidate repeatedly adopts such a stance on the basis of which he can be banned, then action should be taken, but the existing evidence does not prove so.
How strong is the Joint List alliance?
The Joint List is the first of the two major political groups affected by the CEC's decision. It is a coalition of Hadash, Balad and Ta'al parties.
These parties mainly get the support of Palestinian citizens of Israel. This population is about one-fifth of the total population of the country.
Hadash, included in the Joint List, is a leftist ideological party, which has members of both Jewish and Arab communities. Ta'al primarily advocates for the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, while Balad calls for a state with equal rights for all citizens.
All three parties have agreed to contest this election under a single list. This means that the candidates of all three parties will be on the same list on the election ballot.
The Hadash-Ta'al alliance has five seats in the current 120-member Knesset. Of these, three seats are held by leaders of Hadash, while two seats are held by leaders of Ta'al. At the same time, Balad currently does not have any seat in the Knesset.
However, recent election surveys had indicated an increase in the seats of the Joint List. In surveys like Kan 11 and Channel 12, the alliance was estimated to get around 7 to 8 seats.
Ram Party wants share in Netanyahu's vote bank
Ram Party led by Mansoor Abbas is contesting the elections separately this time.
Ram was also included in Israel's coalition government formed between 2021 and 2022. The party's main support has been among Arab and Muslim voters.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Ram's ideology has been related to the political movement inspired by Islam. However, in the past few years, the party has placed more emphasis on socio-economic issues related to Israel's Arab citizens rather than religious and social issues.
In 2025, party leader Mansoor Abbas had said that Ram would end its formal ties with Islamic organizations. Its purpose was to make the party more acceptable even among Israel's Jewish population.
Netanyahu's Likud party has traditionally enjoyed support among right-wing and Jewish voters. In an effort to reach out to such voters, Ram placed Yoav Segalowitz second on his electoral list.
Segalowitz is Jewish and considers himself a supporter of mainstream Zionist ideas. He has been emphasizing the need for an equal partnership between Israel's Jewish and Arab communities.
Ram has five seats in the current Knesset. Even in the surveys conducted before the elections, the party was estimated to get around 5 to 6 seats.
At the same time, in the survey, no major political party was seen getting the required 61 seats for majority. In such a situation, the role of parties like Ram could have been important in forming the government.
Arab parties in the role of 'kingmakers'
Even in the March 2021 elections, no alliance got a clear majority. At that time Ram had four seats. The party formed an alliance with right-wing leaders Bennett Bennett and Yair Lapid.
After the formation of this coalition government with the support of Ram, Netanyahu's period of continuous power for almost 12 years came to an end.
However, this alliance could not last long and the government fell in December 2022. After this, elections were held again.
According to the surveys conducted before the elections, Arab parties were expected to get around 12 seats in total. 61 seats are required for a majority in the Knesset.
In such a situation, the possible 12 seats held by Arab parties could play an important role in the figures required to form the government.
This is the reason why the impact of Arab parties being out of the elections after the CEC's decision cannot be limited only to these parties and their supporters, but it can also affect the next picture of the Knesset and the possibilities of forming a government.
Hope of overturning the decision in Supreme Court
According to Israeli law, this decision of the election committee is not final. Political parties and leaders have the right to appeal against this ban in the Supreme Court. At the same time, the approval of the Supreme Court is mandatory for personal disqualification.
Human rights organization 'Adalah' and related parties have challenged this decision in the Supreme Court, which will be heard and reviewed by the court in the coming days.
Senior Joint List MP Ahmed Tibi described the decision as racist and undemocratic. He also said that this time Arab voters will vote in large numbers.
Experts believe that considering the previous examples, the Supreme Court can also reject this ban.
In 2019 and 2022 also, such decisions to exclude Arab parties from elections were overturned by the Supreme Court.
Who are Arab citizens in Israel?
The majority of Arab people are descendants of those who remained within the borders declared by Israel after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israel was formed from the British Mandate of Palestine, where about 12 lakh Arabs lived at that time.
America's Council on Foreign Relations has written in one of its reports, "More than seven lakh of these people were expelled or left from there, which the Arabs call Nakba i.e. catastrophe." After this, about 1.5 lakh Arabs remained in the area, which later became Israel. They automatically became citizens of Israel and at that time their share in Israel's population was almost half. Unlike Jewish citizens, Israel's Arab citizens were kept under military rule until 1966.
A year later, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and offered Israeli citizenship to the millions of Arabs living there, but most of them did not accept. The United Nations considers this area as occupied Palestinian territory. Today, the Arab people living there are counted in the censuses of both Israel and Palestine, and very few of them are citizens of Israel.
Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post wrote in one of its reports, "Arab citizens constitute 21 percent of Israel's population and about 17 percent of those eligible to vote." His electoral ability is important. Under the right circumstances, Arab voters can decide which political coalition will form the next government.
Today, about 21 percent of Israel's population is Arab, that is, about 2 million people. All of them, except a few lakh people living in East Jerusalem, are citizens of Israel. These people of East Jerusalem are permanent residents and under this status they have fewer rights than citizens. The majority of Arab citizens are Sunni Muslims.
Israeli government documents and media refer to Arab citizens as "Arabs" or "Israeli Arabs", and some Arabs also use these terms for themselves. Global news media also commonly use similar terminology to distinguish these people from Arabs living in the Palestinian territories.
