Israel is one hearing away from doing something it has rarely done. On Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously told Balad party chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh that a majority of the nine justices would uphold his disqualification from the October 27 election, and urged him to withdraw by Friday. The fact that the Supreme Court justices issued a unanimous decision is remarkable in a country that rarely sees eye to eye on anything. It is made all the more remarkable that the unanimous decision included the Israeli Arab justice as well, whose very presence on the court belies accusations of apartheid and discrimination.

If Abu Shehadeh does not withdraw, the Court will have to issue the ruling. Either way, the head of an Arab party is about to be kept off the Knesset ballot, and the ruling will be sold abroad as proof that Israel is an apartheid state that silences and discriminates against its Arab citizens. 

That claim does not survive the record or reality despite what the headlines will say.

The power to bar a political party or a candidate sits in Section 7A of Israel’s “Basic Law: The Knesset.” A candidate may be disqualified for negating Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, for incitement to racism, or for supporting armed struggle by a hostile state or a terrorist organization against Israel. The Central Elections Committee votes first. The Supreme Court reviews, and for 40 years it has set a high bar. The forbidden aim alleged has to be dominant, clear, and proved.

Under that test, to date the political bans that have been upheld have been bans on Jewish parties and politicians.

With one exception in 1965, before the Basic Law existed, the pattern is uniform. In 1988, the Court upheld the disqualification of Kach, Rabbi Meir Kahane’s party, for incitement to racism. In 1992, it upheld further bans on Kach and another party, Kahane Chai. In 1994, after........

© Townhall