The High Court of Justice rejects a petition to allow Itamar Ben Gvir of the extremist Otzma Yehudit party to be moved up on the Union of Right Wing Parties electoral list.
The appeal was filed after the court barred Otzma Yehudit member Michael Ben Ari from running in Knesset elections on April 9. Ben Ari had been placed in the fifth spot on URWP’s slate and Ben Gvir requested to be bumped up into his slot, despite Israeli law barring parties from changing their lists after they submit them to the Central Elections Committee.
“This is the last time the High Court will decide about us. After the elections we will decide about the High Court,” URWP says in a statement.
Ben Gvir implies the decision was motivated by opposition to the prospect of him being appointed to the parliamentary panel that appoints judges, as part of the agreement that brought Otzma Yehudit into an electoral alliance with the Jewish Home and National Union parties.
“The judges know that unlike cosmetic changes by other politicians, I’m the only one who will put an end to the High Court of Justice’s rule,” says Ben Gvir, who is a lawyer.
Otzma Yehudit member Itamar Ben Gvir visits a Chabad yeshiva in the northern city of Safed on March 28, 2019. (David Cohen/Flash90)
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