Yesh Atid opposes Zoabi and Marzel candidacies
Party says it backs disqualification of ‘extremists’ who ‘only increase incitement in the Knesset’
The centrist Yesh Atid party threw its support behind efforts to disqualify two extremist Knesset hopefuls from elections Wednesday, a day after reports indicated the attorney general would not oppose their candidacy.
The Central Elections Committee is set to rule on whether Hanin Zoabi, from the Joint (Arab) List, and Baruch Marzel, from the newly formed Yachad faction, will be able to run in upcoming elections.
Both candidates have come under fire for outspoken ultra-nationalist views, though they each sit on opposite fringes of the political spectrum.
In a statement released Wednesday, Yesh Atid said it “believes in Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” and “objects to extremism, from the right and the left, which serves only to increase incitement and violent rhetoric in the Israeli Knesset,” the statement continues.
The party’s clear stand as expressed on Wednesday contrasts with the Zionist Union’s apparent zigzag on the issue. Last week, the joint Labor-Hatnua list signed on to an initiative seeking to disqualify Zoabi from running in the elections. The party issued a statement in which it said would also seek to bar Marzel from running for parliament.
But earlier this week party leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni decided to avoid taking a stand on the issue, and announced they would follow any decision that comes from the committee’s deliberations, expected to begin Thursday.
The change in the party’s position was ridiculed by Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.
Liberman wrote on his Facebook page that “it is not enough to label yourself ‘The Zionist Camp’ – a true Zionist does not give in to threats by the Arabs,” implying the Zionist Union changed course due to pressure from Arab MKs.
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein is expected to submit a legal opinion against disqualifying the two Knesset candidates to the Central Elections Committee on Thursday, when the committee debates the petitions against their running in the elections.
Weinstein’s opinion is not legally binding, but as the top law-enforcement official in government who also serves as the government’s most senior legal adviser, his view may help sway the votes of committee members.
Haviv Rettig Gur contributed to this report.
