The High Court of Justice says it will consider on Thursday the Central Elections Committee’s decisions to disqualify Balad party head Sami Abu Shehadeh and Joint List MK Ofer Cassif from running in the October 27 elections.
The rulings by the CEC, made up almost entirely of politicians representing Knesset factions, must be approved by the court, which is likely to strike down the ban on Cassif.
But the 30-4 vote on Wednesday to disqualify Abu Shehadeh had the support of all opposition parties and rare backing from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who oversees the panel.
Sohlberg said Abou Shahadeh had failed to adequately answer allegations that he expressed support for Hamas’s armed struggle against Israel in an article he published a day after the October 7, 2023, massacre.
The case will be taken up by a nine-judge panel, consisting of all the current justices except for Sohlberg and Ruth Ronnen.
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From the Liveblog of
Friday, September 25, 2026
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