Bill to make it harder for extremists run for Knesset submitted

Balad blasts bill that could stop party in next election

By GIL HOFFMAN
Knesset plenum April 20, 2020 (photo credit: SHMULIK GROSSMAN)
Knesset plenum April 20, 2020
(photo credit: SHMULIK GROSSMAN)
The long-standing practice of the Central Elections Committee voting to disqualify parties and candidates and the Supreme Court overturning the decision could change, according to a new bill submitted on Monday.
The legislation, submitted by MKs Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) and Zvi Hauser (Derech Eretz), would require a two-thirds vote instead of the current simple majority to disqualify parties and candidates in the committee, which is made up of representatives of parties.
There would also have to be a ruling of two-thirds of nine judges in the Supreme Court.
“The goal of the bill is to create a more balanced process of disqualifying parties and candidates for Knesset,” Sa’ar and Hauser wrote in the bill. “In the current arrangement, it is easy to get lists and candidates disqualified by the Central Elections Committee, and it is also easy to get the decision overturned by appealing to the Supreme Court. The result is that there is not enough defense of the right to vote and be voted in, or for the values that are the legal justification for disqualifying candidates.”
Candidates and parties can be disqualified for opposing Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, inciting to racism or supporting the armed struggle against the State of Israel by a foreign country or terrorist organization.
Over the years, the Supreme Court had made mistaken decisions that in effect erased those justifications, Sa’ar and Hauser said.
For instance, they cited the 2003 court ruling to overturn the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify the Balad Party, which was led by Azmi Bishara, who was later suspected of assisting the enemy in wartime, transmitting information to the enemy, contact with a foreign agent and money-laundering.
They also cited the court’s 5-4 vote this year permitting Balad MK Heba Yazbak to run.
Balad leader Mtanes Shehadeh criticized the bill and its sponsors.
“The creator of the Nation-State Law continues to produce racist bills,” he said, referring to Hauser. “Sa’ar and Hauser do not surprise us, because both are antidemocratic and have a mentality of occupation and annexation.”