Bibi's coalition moving to ban Arab candidates from running for office.
Shaiel Ben-Ephraim@academic_la
A move by the Netanyahu government with crucial ramifications for democracy
and the Israeli international reputation is currently proceeding under the radar.
The coalition is preparing a law to ban Arab candidates from appearing in the
next elections. The way the law is crafted is very sophisticated in order to
prevent opposition MKs from being able to fight it. It has three elements:
* Widening the criteria by which Arab MKs can be disqualified. Currently, it
requires consistent support for terrorist organizations and enemies of Israel.
Now, they want to make it so any show of support for resistance against Israel,
even without consistent application or a terror organization involved, would be
grounds for expulsion. Technically, that would mean even if someone said, "the
occupation should be resisted" one time, they could get expelled.
* Today you cannot disqualify a party that is part of a union of parties. The new
law will make that possible.
* The law will remove the authority of the Supreme Court to determine who can
be banned from running in elections. Instead, the central electoral committee
will be responsible. The Supreme Court will have appeal authority only.
Needless to say, with the current Knesset composition, this will only be used
against Arab parties and not terror-supporting Jewish parties like Ben-Gvir and
Smotrich.
In addition, the government has an interest in using this widely to sabotage
Arab parties running in the elections. That is because if Arabs do not run, the
right-wing parties have a far better chance of getting a majority. Meanwhile, the
potential this law has for manipulation could harm the very fiber of Israeli
democracy by limiting the vote of minorities.
This must not be allowed to happen. The current laws preventing candidates
from running if they consistently support terrorrism and oppose the state of
Israel as a democratic and Jewish state are enough. Arab parties already have
very little power. Limiting it further on racial grounds is unacceptable.
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