The Central Elections Board is in the midst of deciding today whether to disqualify several Arab MKs and parties from running in the upcoming election. Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein is in favor only of ruling out MK Azmi Bishara, because of Bishara's support for Hizbullah against Israel, but not MK Ahmed Tibi. Some Israeli-Arab leaders have threatened that their public would not take part in the elections if their parties were nullified. As of this afternoon, a decision not to nullify Tibi's list had already been made, but Tibi himself is still a question mark.
Three recent decisions by the Elections Board are apparently not final. Likud members Sha'ul Mofaz and Moshe Feiglin plan to appeal their disqualification to the special Supreme Court body that hears appeals of this sort, and the Labor Party plans a similar appeal of the decision not to disqualify Baruch Marzel of Herut. Mofaz was taken off the Likud list because his official retirement from the army was less than six months ago; Feiglin's conviction in connection with protest activities against the Oslo process were deemed to carry a "mark of shame," requiring a seven-year cooling-off period. Marzel was accused of being a Kach member, but the Board voted to accept his claim that he had long ago quit the outlawed movement.
Hon. Cheshin received a petition signed by 170 Israeli university professors and lecturers today, calling on him not to disqualify any of the Arab lists. The petition states that such a move would be "anti-democratic and a serious mistake."
In other election news, Election Committee Chairman Cheshin issued a restraining order today, forbidding Arutz-7 from broadcasting election propaganda. The Center for Jewish Pluralism organization had asked Cheshin to forbid the station from broadcasting altogether, but the judge rejected that notion. The ruling has little formal value, in that all stations are already forbidden to broadcast propaganda. Cheshin said that Arutz-7's news broadcasts and magazines, including interviews with left-wing personalities, did not balance out the right-wing tilt of its other shows.
The Shas party received a boost today when Aryeh Deri visited with its spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and gave him a letter of endorsement for Shas.
Three recent decisions by the Elections Board are apparently not final. Likud members Sha'ul Mofaz and Moshe Feiglin plan to appeal their disqualification to the special Supreme Court body that hears appeals of this sort, and the Labor Party plans a similar appeal of the decision not to disqualify Baruch Marzel of Herut. Mofaz was taken off the Likud list because his official retirement from the army was less than six months ago; Feiglin's conviction in connection with protest activities against the Oslo process were deemed to carry a "mark of shame," requiring a seven-year cooling-off period. Marzel was accused of being a Kach member, but the Board voted to accept his claim that he had long ago quit the outlawed movement.
Hon. Cheshin received a petition signed by 170 Israeli university professors and lecturers today, calling on him not to disqualify any of the Arab lists. The petition states that such a move would be "anti-democratic and a serious mistake."
In other election news, Election Committee Chairman Cheshin issued a restraining order today, forbidding Arutz-7 from broadcasting election propaganda. The Center for Jewish Pluralism organization had asked Cheshin to forbid the station from broadcasting altogether, but the judge rejected that notion. The ruling has little formal value, in that all stations are already forbidden to broadcast propaganda. Cheshin said that Arutz-7's news broadcasts and magazines, including interviews with left-wing personalities, did not balance out the right-wing tilt of its other shows.
The Shas party received a boost today when Aryeh Deri visited with its spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and gave him a letter of endorsement for Shas.