Baruch Marzel
Baruch MarzelFlash 90

After MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) filed a petition seeking to bar him and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman from running in the upcoming elections, it was the turn of activist and Knesset candidate Baruch Marzel to file his own petition – seeking to bar the united Arab list consisting of Hadash, Balad, Ra'am and Ta'al from running in the elections.

In his petition to the Central Elections Committee, Marzel said that members of the party publicly expressed opposition to the concept of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state, and as such had no reason to run in elections for representation in the Jewish state's legislative body.

In addition, the petition said, the Arab candidates have a long history of supporting terrorists and failing to condemn terror attacks. They also support “the armed struggle of Israel's enemies and terror groups against Israel, which according to the Basic Law: Knesset prevents then from running in an election,” the petition said.

Attached to the petition were choice samples of the anti-Israel and pro-terror comments made over the years by several of the candidates, including MK Hanan Zoabi. In an interview with Russian media, for example, Zoabi said “I have no problem with Iran, and I am very supportive of all the groups fighting the occupation of the Palestinians by Israel. I certainly support any and all groups fighting the occupation,” she said.

In a separate interview, MK Ahmed Tibi said that he had marched with terrorists in a refugee camp controlled by the Palestinian Authority, as they proudly wore suicide vests loaded with bombs and carried automatic weapons. Tibi led the march, and called on those participating to “end the occupation,” he said.

“I am going to wipe the smirk off Hanin Zoabi's face,” said Marzel. “She advocates the killing of IDF soldiers, and the murders of children.”'

Several petitions in a similar vein have been filed against both Zoabi herself and the joint Arab list as a whole, noting that each has been guilty of supporting terrorism - the latter by including the Balad party. Before the technical bloc was announced, Otzma Yehudit leader and former MK Michael Ben-Ari predicted that a petition against its party would be filed in the CEC, as leftists have done in previous elections, and noted that previous attempts have not succeeded.