Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is expected to ask the Central Election Commission to disqualify Baruch Marzel and Benzi Gopstein from running in the upcoming elections for the Knesset, Channel 13 News reported.
However, Mandelblit will not seek to disqualify the Otzma Yehudit party from running altogether.
Mandelblit does not want to disqualify Itamar Ben Gvir, who is ranked first on the party list and whose candidacy was approved by the High Court of Justice ahead of the last elections.
An attorney for the Otzma Yehudit party said in response: "It is again revealed that the Attorney General works with the Reform [Movement] and serves as a representative for the extreme left in the Justice Ministry. The severe leaks of the Attorney General's position when requests for response by Otzma Yehudit have not yet been submitted indicates that his position has been decided in advance."
"Although the Knesset has seen a long list of serious acts and statements by the MKs of the joint list, including visits and assistance to terrorists in prison, Mandelblit does not even consider disqualifying them. The Attorney General refuses to accept the Supreme Court's decision that Baruch Marzel can run for Knesset and acts in an anti-democratic way. Such an Attorney General should go home tonight."
Baruch Marzel said: "There is no legal opinion here, but a political opinion of Mandelblit and Shai Nitzan who did not even try to create a position of natural justice. Their decision has already been made in advance."
Benzi Gopstein added, "The reformers have been trying for years to prosecute me without success, and when they failed to succeed through the court, their representative in the Justice Ministry contacted Avichai Mandelblit."