Accepted the Supreme Court's proposal: Abu Shehadeh withdraws from the Knesset race

After prolonged discussions within the party, Balad Chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh announced Thursday night that he will accept the Supreme Court justices' proposal and withdraw from running for the Knesset. His decision makes a ruling on the matter unnecessary.

The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, welcomed the decision and said: "We promised, we delivered! I am glad that the struggle we led brought about the resignation of Sami Abu Shehadeh from the Knesset, after the things he wrote and his support for Hamas the day after October 7th. At the same time, it is regrettable that the Supreme Court allowed him to resign without a verdict being given on the disqualification issue."

"Jewish Power will continue to fight with all its strength against terror supporters and Israel-haters who seek to enter the Knesset. Abu Shehadeh will watch the next Knesset on Channel 99. Goodbye, Abu Shehadeh!" he concluded.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on his official X account: "Yitzhak Amit is laughing at us all the way to the ballot box."

The chairman of "Yashar!" Gadi Eisenkot sent a jab at Likud and wrote on his X account: "On behalf of the entire Yashar! party, I want to express my condolences to the Likud party and Netanyahu for the disqualification of a true partner in the Machal alliance - Balad. The entire Knesset knows how deep the connection is, and now so do the citizens of Israel. Sending strength."

As previously reported, the Supreme Court, with a panel of nine justices, held two separate hearings that will decide the fate of four disqualifications set by the Central Elections Committee ahead of the 26th Knesset elections: the disqualification of MK Ofer Cassif, the disqualification of Balad Chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, and the disqualification of the Ra'am and Joint Lists. At the conclusion of the hearing regarding Abu Shehadeh, he was advised to reconsider his candidacy due to the apparent majority in favor of his disqualification.

The request to disqualify Abu Shehadeh, submitted by Otzma Yehudit, was approved by the committee with an especially large majority, 31 to 4, and in an unusual event, the chairman of the committee, Judge Noam Sohlberg, also voted in favor of the disqualification, after clarifying that "for 20 years, the chairmen of the Election Committee have refrained from participating in the vote in order to maintain neutrality," but he found it appropriate to deviate from this practice this time.

Ra'am was disqualified by a majority of 18 to 5, and subsequently, the Joint List was also disqualified. On the other hand, in those same discussions, requests to disqualify Otzma Yehudit (in a close vote) and to disqualify the Democrats' list were rejected.