Election Committee Rejects Bid to Bar Otzma Yehudit in 19-10 Vote

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. Ten members voted for disqualification, 19 against and one abstained. The Democrats and the Zulat Institute had argued that the party negates Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state and incites to racism. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara opposed disqualification, calling the evidence "very troubling" and saying it brought the list very close to the forbidden zone, but finding no "critical mass" of evidence meeting the strict bar set by Supreme Court rulings.