AG says Otzma Yehudit can’t change Knesset slate after party leader banned

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit says it’s not legally possible for Otzma Yehudit to update its Knesset slate after the High Court disqualified the leader of the extremist party from running in the April election.

In response to the top court’s ban on Michael Ben Ari, Otzma Yehudit demanded that the Central Elections Committee allow Itamar Ben Gvir be moved up from eighth to fifth position on the Union of Right Wing Parties list, and approve an updating of the faction’s deal with the URWP to grant Ben Gvir a key ministerial post in the next government.

In a legal opinion submitted to the committee ahead of its decision, Mandelblit says the election panel does not have the legal authority to alter the Knesset slates after they have already been approved.

On Sunday, the High Court voted in favor of a petition calling for Ben Ari to be disqualified over his anti-Arab ideology and incitement, overturning a decision by the elections committee.