Right-wing candidate Michael Ben-Ari has faced stinging backlash since his statements about Israeli Arabs, in which he described them as “enemies from within” – something that Israeli Attorney General has called “incitement to racism”.
The justices reversed a Knesset election committee decision that green-lit Ben-Ari’s candidacy earlier this month and banned the joint slate of Balad-United Arab List and Ofer Cassif, a member of political alliance Hadash-Ta’al, from running in the forthcoming election.
Cassif was accused of equating Israel and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) with the Nazi regime, and calling Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, “neo-Nazi scum”. He, however, claimed he was simply using metaphors.
The ruling marked the first time in the court’s history that an individual has been prohibited from standing in elections.
Ben-Ari landed in hot water for comments he made about Palestinians in Israel that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit previously branded as “incitement to racism” and “calling for a violent renunciation of the Arab population’s rights”.
Reacting to the decision, Ben-Ari has denounced the “judicial junta which seeks to take over our lives”, Haaretz reported, adding that other members of his party remained eligible to run.
The United Right Party labelled the ruling absurd and pledged to put an end to what they called judicial overreach.
“The people, not the judges should be choosing the candidates”, they said.
Social media users were also dissatisfied with the court’s ruling, calling it an example of double standards and blasting the decision as “unfair” and “disgraceful”