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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Israeli Supreme Court Overturns Ban

Fabulous news:
Israel's Supreme court overruled on Wednesday a parliamentary panel which had decided to bar Israeli Arab parties from running in next month's parliamentary election.

The court issued its decision in response to an appeal filed by Arab politicians against the ban. A spokesman for the Courts Administration said judges overturned the ban in an unanimous vote Wednesday.

In response to the court decision, Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi said: "We have defeated fascism, but this battle is not quite complete, discrimination has become centralized. We will finish this operation in Israel on the day of elections."

The Central Elections Committee (CEC) last week banned the Arab parties United Arab List-Ta'al and Balad from running in February's parliamentary elections amid accusations of racism from Arab MKs.

The fact that the decision was unanimous is also welcome. Had the ban not been overturned, Arab parties were justifiably threatening to boycott the upcoming election and establish an alternative parliament of their own.

Meanwhile, although these declarations of mine are always moot because I'm not an Israeli citizen, I'm renouncing my allegiance to Kadima for supporting this maneuver, and am throwing myself back into the camp of Meretz (which has long been supported by my home Synagogue anyway), the only Zionist party to oppose the ban.

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