Israels Election Committee Disqualifies Arab Joint List From October Vote
Israel's Central Elections Committee disqualified the Joint List and other Arab parties from the October Knesset election, with rulings pending Supreme Court.
Jerusalem, 23 September, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify the Joint List, an alliance of Arab-majority parties, from the October 27 Knesset election, following similar rulings barring the United Arab List (Ra’am), lawmaker Ofer Cassif, and Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh. The decisions now go to the Supreme Court for final review, which is widely expected to overturn them.
The Joint List called the ruling “political, racist, and anti-democratic,” saying in a statement it amounts to disqualifying “the political representation of more than one million voters, who make up 20% of the country’s citizens.”
The party accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of pursuing “a years-long campaign of delegitimization against Arab citizens” Ahead of the vote.