Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has presented his opinion to the High Court regarding the recent disqualification of Balad and Ra'am-Ta'al. Both parties should be allowed to run in the upcoming elections, Mazuz said.
Mazuz said evidence against the two parties was weak. There was less evidence behind the current push to disqualify Balad than there was in 2003, he said, when the High Court overturned the disqualification and allowed the party to run.
The fact that former Balad head Azmi Bishara has fled the country after allegedly passing classified information to Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War reflects only on Bishara, Mazuz said, and not on the party as a whole.
The parties were disqualified in a vote held by the Knesset Elections Committee last week. Twenty-six members voted to disqualify the parties; only three voted against the measure.
Balad and Ra'am-Ta'al MKs openly identify with Israel's enemies, call the creation of the state a 'Nakba' (Catastrophe) and wish to end Israel's existence as a Jewish state, argue those who voted for the measure. They have also pointed out that several MKs belonging to the two parties attended the funeral of arch-terrorist George Habash in early 2008 and expressed sorrow at his passing.
Representatives of Balad and Ra'am-Ta'al have taken their case to the High Court of Justice, and are demanding that the court overturn the vote and allow them to run for Knesset. The vote was discriminatory and violates the Arab public's freedom, they argue.
NU, Yisrael Beiteinu to Oppose
On Tuesday, the National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) parties will submit their own responses to the suit filed by Balad and Ra'am-Ta'al.
The two parties made their opinions known on Monday. Dr. Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beiteinu) argued, “Only a state that's gone insane would pay those who represent the enemy and allow them to serve in the parliament and use it against the state.”
"Israeli democracy must defend itself,” argued NU representative Aryeh Eldad, “against those who wish to revoke [Israel's] identity as a Jewish state.”