Campaign News

High Court Dismisses Otzma Yehudit Disqualification Petition (Updated)

Published Sep 24, 2026, 3:43 AM · 1 month ago

Updates

September 24, 2026: The Central Elections Committee on September 24 rejected Otzma Yehudit's request to bar Yair Golan's Democrats from running in the election for the 26th Knesset.
September 24, 2026: The Central Elections Committee, chaired by Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, on September 24 rejected the request to bar the Religious Zionism–Zehut list from running for the 26th Knesset.
September 24, 2026: The Central Elections Committee, chaired by Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, on September 24 rejected requests to disqualify Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit from running in the upcoming Knesset election.
October 4, 2026: The High Court dismissed the Democrats’ petition to disqualify Otzma Yehudit or Itamar Ben-Gvir and Tally Gotliv, citing failure to follow the statutory appeal procedure and late filing. The ruling did not decide the underlying allegations on their merits.

Original report

The Central Elections Committee, chaired by Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, held its second day of disqualification hearings for the 26th Knesset on September 24. It took up a petition by the Democrats and the Zulat Institute to bar Otzma Yehudit, a Zulat petition against Religious Zionism–Zehut, and an Otzma Yehudit petition against the Democrats, each alleging incitement to racism. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara opposed disqualifying all three lists. During the session, former MK Yael German compared Otzma Yehudit to Nazism, and Itamar Ben-Gvir and MK Tally Gotliv responded that this trivialized the Holocaust. Committee members were expected to vote on the three requests later that day.

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