Election Committee Votes to Bar Ra’am, Pending Supreme Court Review

Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted 18 to 5, with one abstention, to disqualify Ra’am from the October 27 Knesset election. The vote followed requests filed by Likud, Otzma Yehudit and the Choosing Life forum of bereaved families. Ra’am is led by MK Mansour Abbas. The decision does not take effect automatically: the Supreme Court must review the committee’s ruling before the party can be barred from the ballot. The committee voted separately earlier in the day on petitions concerning Ofer Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh.