Racist Israel group tries to block Arabs from running for Knesset
Arab Joint List responds to effort to disqualify the Arab Joint List from running in the Sept. 17, 2019 Israeli elections: “Election disqualification request filed by ‘Jewish Power’ party against us is racist”
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel issued a response today, Tuesday, 13 August 2019, to the request filed by Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir and the Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) party to the Central Election Committee (CEC) to disqualify the Arab Joint List from participating in Israel’s upcoming national parliamentary election, calling it motivated by racism.
Adalah filed the response on behalf of the Joint List ahead of tomorrow’s Central Election Committee hearing on requests to disqualify candidates and political parties from the 17 September 2019 national election.
Tomorrow’s hearing will be held at 15:30 at the Knesset.
Adalah General Director Attorney Hassan Jabareen wrote in the response that the request to disqualify the Joint List is rooted in racism and is not supported by the Basic Law: Knesset, which governs the disqualification of candidates and party lists.
Most of the evidence included with Ben Gvir’s and the Jewish Power party’s request had already been rejected by the Israeli Supreme Court when it was provided with previous attempts to disqualify the Joint List. The only new evidence is based on misrepresented facts and racist commentary that negate the demand of Arab elected officials for equal citizenship.
The Joint List called on the CEC to reject Ben Gvir’s and the Jewish Power’s disqualification request and to order them liable for court expenses.
Joint List Chairman MK Ayman Odeh added:
“There is no other way to say it: This is a request to disqualify the political representation of all Arab citizens. This racist move will be discussed tomorrow by the CEC, a political body some of whose party members promote campaigns of incitement and hate on a daily basis. I recommend that those voting in favor of this anti-democratic disqualification request do so by calling out ‘Kahane Was Right’.”
CLICK HERE to read the Joint List’s response filed by Adalah[Hebrew]
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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