Liberman calls to outlaw Balad party, after High Court allows it to run in election

Yisrael Beytenu party chief MK Avigdor Liberman writes on X that “so long as [Sami] Abou Shehadeh remains head of Balad, and representatives of his party are in the Knesset, a terror organization is being represented in the Knesset. We must outlaw Balad.”

He is responding to the High Court of Justice decision allowing the Arab-led Joint List to run in the October election, striking down a ban imposed by the Central Elections Committee.

The court did not have to formally rule on the ban against Abou Shehadeh — imposed over the content of an article he published the day after the October 7 attack — because he withdrew his candidacy after the justices said they would uphold the ban if he did not.

Religious Zionism party chief Bezalel Smotrich responds to Liberman, accusing the latter of “partnering with a bloc that has declared it will set up a government with the support of the Joint List the day after the election.”

The anti-Netanyahu bloc has not made such a declaration. Party leaders in the bloc differ on the question of how much to cooperate with Arab-led parties, with some advocating partnership and others eschewing it.

Speculation has mounted that the bloc may rely on Arab parties abstaining from a vote on a new government in order to ensure that the anti-Netanyahu parties have a majority, depending on the result of the October 27 election.

Smotrich also says that a Liberman-led government would cut off the “settlement revolution” carried out by the current leadership.