Israeli Supreme Court rejects Central Election Committee's decision to disqualify Palestinian MK Heba Yazbak from running in March national election

10/02/2020

Adalah: 5-4 decision clearly demonstrates the fragility of the political rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and their elected representatives; disqualification motions have one sole purpose - to delegitimize and demonize Palestinian political representation.

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected on Sunday, February 9, 2020 the Central Election Committee's decision to disqualify Palestinian Knesset Member Heba Yazbak (Joint List), thus allowing her to run in the 2 March Israeli national parliamentary election.

CLICK HERE for full details on the attempts to disqualify MK Heba Yazbak

The expanded panel of nine justices ruled, by a majority of 5 to 4, that MK Yazbak is permitted to participate in the election.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel issued a response on Sunday evening to the Supreme Court's decision to allow MK Yazbak to run:

"The Israeli Supreme Court 5-4 vote rejecting the Central Election Committee's decision to disqualify Knesset Member Heba Yazbak, while confirming that there was no legal basis for the disqualification, nevertheless clearly demonstrates the fragility of the political rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and their elected representatives. These disqualification motions have one sole purpose: To delegitimize and demonize the political representation of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The petitioners are well aware that their motions are hopeless, but they continue to exploit the public stage created by the disqualification process to spew racism and create political capital."

CLICK HERE to read the Supreme Court decision [Hebrew]

CLICK HERE for full details on the attempts to disqualify MK Heba Yazbak

(Homepage photo by Ari Remez/Adalah)