The Israeli Supreme Court overturned the invalidation of the election of an Arab MP by the electoral commission on Sunday, accusing her of supporting " terrorism ". The candidacy of Heba Yazbak - who sits on Parliament on the "United List" of Israeli Arab parties since the April 2019 elections - was invalidated in late January by the electoral commission. Member of the Arab nationalist Balad party, Heba Yazbak was running for the legislative elections of March 2.
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She was accused by the electoral commission of supporting " terrorism ", in particular by showing her support for a figure of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, Samir Kantar, who served a life sentence in Israel for the murder of Israelis in 1979 , before being released in 2008. " There is no" critical mass "of formal and convincing evidence that justifies invalidating " his candidacy, said the Supreme Court which said it had taken in consideration the " remorse " expressed by Mrs. Yazbak "on some of her publications".
The lawsuit against Ms. Yazbak was initiated by Likoud, the party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and by Israel Beiteinou, the nationalist party of former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. These two groups claim the disqualification of parties contesting the Jewish character of the State of Israel or supporting any armed struggle against the Hebrew State.
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The decisions of the electoral commission - made up of a judge and party representatives in proportion to their number of seats in Parliament - can be challenged before the Supreme Court and Ms. Yazbak had indicated that she would appeal against this decision. " Anyone who wants Heba Yazbak in the opposition, and not in the government, must vote only for Likud, " reacted to Likud on Twitter.
The March elections are the third in less than a year in Israel. Following the early elections in April and September, neither Mr. Netanyahu nor his rival, the centrist Benny Gantz, of the “Bleu-Blanc” party, managed to rally 61 deputies, the threshold for the parliamentary majority necessary to form a government.
