Yisrael Beiteinu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman slammed the attorney general's decision to recommend to the High Court of Justice to cancel the decision of the Elections Committee to disqualify Hadash candidate Ofer Kassif from running for the Knesset.
"I respect the attorney general, but I am sorry that in this case he decided to stand by someone calling for violence and the liquidation of Jews," Liberman said.
"Whoever says that the chief of staff is a war criminal, that the State of Israel performs ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and compares the Jews who go to the Temple Mount to cancer which has metastasized, his place is not in the Israeli Knesset. I expect the High Court of Justice to not interfere in the decision of the Central Elections Committee," he said.
Earlier today, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit submitted to the Supreme Court his opinion that Hadash-Ta'al candidate Ofer Kassif should be allowed to run for the Knesset, in response to a decision by the Central Elections Committee to disqualify Kassif and the Hadash-Ta'al list.
The opinion stated that "the Attorney General and the State Attorney strongly disagree with some of the statements attributed to Dr. Kassif, including those relating to IDF soldiers in an interview with Haaretz, from statements relating to Nazism and comparison with Nazi Germany, etc. However, this is not the question that stands In the framework of the procedure."
The Attorney General reiterated his position before the Elections Committee that "there is no reason to prevent Dr. Kassif from running in the elections because there has not been a "critical mass" required for his disqualification."