Election ban on Arab nationalist overturned

Israel’s supreme court yesterday overturned a ban on the candidacy of an outspoken Arab nationalist legislator in forthcoming elections, while president Shimon Peres sought to sway voters by sharply criticising the policies of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and heaping praise upon the Palestinian president.

The court’s 9-0 decision reinstates Haneen Zoabi of the Balad party, whose candidacy in the 22 January polling had been nullified by the Central Elections Committee because she participated in a 2009 flotilla with international activists aimed at breaking the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ban, made at the request of Mr Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Beiteinu party, was widely perceived within the already marginalised Arab minority as aimed at silencing expression of its political views.

Speaking to foreign diplomats yesterday, Mr Peres said it is possible to reach a diplomatic agreement with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and criticised the recent wave of approvals for Israeli settlement construction.

“There is a clear majority among the people in favour of two states for two peoples,” Mr Peres said, adding that Mr. Abbas “is the only Arab leader who stands up and says publicly he is for peace and against terror.”

Mr Peres said that in light of the changes taking place in the region, Israel should seize the diplomatic initiative rather than be passive, and negotiate an agreement with the Palestinian leader without delay. He said the alternative of one binational state for Israelis and Palestinians in the area currently comprising Israel and the West Bank “endangers Zionism, Judaism and the democracy of the state of Israel.”

Likud minister Gilad Erdan responded: “It is regrettable that the president chose to present to the foreign ambassadors a political stance that encourages the condemnations of Israel.”