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Israel poll ban for Arab parties

Khayembii Communique said:
The democrats were never against the war.



My question was "why should we accept what the courts say?" You certainly don't uphold the rule of courts in all cases, so you can't argue that (Iranian courts, for example). So why should we accept the ruling?



There has been absolutely no evidence offered that they believe that. These party officials have also denied those claims, and considering the fact that this comes not only during the incursion into Gaza, which they opposed, but also in the run up to elections, it is pretty obvious that this is a sham perpetrated by the right wingers in the Knesset.

EDIT: Here's some more information regarding this event:

The Central Elections Committee voted 26-3 with one abstention to ban Balad from the elections and 21-3 with eight abstentions to disqualify UAL Ta'al.
Source

Three petitions to disqualify Balad from running were filed with the Elections Committee last week by the Ichud Leumi (National Union) and Israel Beitenu parties and Itay Furman, formerly of Shinui.
Source

The National Union and Israel Beitenu parties are far-right ultra-nationalists, which supports what I've said. Would you like to condemn this action, ludahai?

EDIT #2: Further clarification from Jalad Zahalka, chairman of Balad:

"Balad is a democratic and progressive party and we believe in the basic principle of equality for all people. We would never accept, politically or emotionally, claims that someone else is superior to us just because we're Arabs," Zahalka said. "All we demand is democracy! What are you afraid of when we ask for equality? We are the sons of this country, we were born here and we are willing to treat you with equality, so why don't you? We offer to live together. [Israel Beitenu chairman Avigdor] Lieberman offers to die together."

"We say, any vote given to Kadima is a bullet in the chest of a Palestinian child in Gaza," Tibi told the committee prior to the vote. "Israel's problem is not Balad, not UAL, but the Kadima Party and [Defense Minister and Labor chairman Ehud] Barak. These people started a war as an election campaign. The State of Israel is democratic for Jews and Jewish for its Arab citizens. We never said that we don't recognize the State of Israel. We are part of it, but we will never accept Zionism, which is an ideology that aspires to banish us from our homes."
ibid.
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Have they made a public statement that Israel has the right to exist?
 
Have they made a public statement that Israel has the right to exist?
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"We never said that we don't recognize the State of Israel. We are part of it"

From Wikipedia:

Balad is an Arab nationalist political party,[3][4] whose stated purpose is the 'struggle to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity.'[5] Balad also demands that the state of Israel recognize Palestinian Arabs as a national minority, entitled to all rights that come with that status including autonomy in education, culture and media.[5]

The party supports creation of two states based on pre-1967 borders, with the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem to constitute a Palestinian state[6] and the implementation of UN Resolution 194 regarding the right of return to Palestinian refugees.

Balad describes itself as a 'democratic progressive national party for the Palestinian citizens of Israel.'[5]
 
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ludahai said:
Your analogy is silly. If Israel has a law on the books that the party must recognize Israel's right to exist and they don't, they should be banned from the ballot. Your little strawman is completely irrelevant to the Israeli situation.

Thanks for playing though.
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Show us where they have stated (the parties, all of them) that Israel has no right to exist. The only ones that have said this are pro Israeli people on these boards, who have claimed this with no evidence what so ever. Talk about a anti-Muslim smear campaign lead by a bunch of radical right Zionist freaks in Israel.. the same freaks who sabotage any peace efforts time and time again via their surrogates.

In fact if you read the articles provided, then you will see the totally opposite. They state that they are Israelis...
 
Khayembii Communique said:
Both parties that were banned recognize Israel's right to exist. These right-wing parties have banned them from elections through the committee of which they are a majority, because the oppose the Gaza invasion. Are you unable to understand that? Where is this difficult to understand for you?
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Could you please cite this from an objective source? If true, I would in fact join in condemnation, but it had better be from a good source and now some pro Arab rag.
 
PeteEU said:
Show us where they have stated (the parties, all of them) that Israel has no right to exist. The only ones that have said this are pro Israeli people on these boards, who have claimed this with no evidence what so ever. Talk about a anti-Muslim smear campaign lead by a bunch of radical right Zionist freaks in Israel.. the same freaks who sabotage any peace efforts time and time again via their surrogates.

In fact if you read the articles provided, then you will see the totally opposite. They state that they are Israelis...
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I want to see evidence. When I have a chance to read it, I will make a judgement of those parties for myself. BTW, I do not consider Wikipedia to be an authoritative source.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
"We never said that we don't recognize the State of Israel. We are part of it"

From Wikipedia:

Balad is an Arab nationalist political party,[3][4] whose stated purpose is the 'struggle to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity.'[5] Balad also demands that the state of Israel recognize Palestinian Arabs as a national minority, entitled to all rights that come with that status including autonomy in education, culture and media.[5]

The party supports creation of two states based on pre-1967 borders, with the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem to constitute a Palestinian state[6] and the implementation of UN Resolution 194 regarding the right of return to Palestinian refugees.

Balad describes itself as a 'democratic progressive national party for the Palestinian citizens of Israel.'[5]
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Blame Arafat, that ugly bastard spat in Israel's face when they offered him everything. BTW, not making a negative statement doesn't mean they promote the positive.
 
Could you please cite this from an objective source?
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Which part? I've already shown that Balad isn't anti-Israel, and have quoted both the party's chairman and wikipedia. What else do you want? Do you want me to support what I've quoted from wikipedia or something with other sources? I could do that.

Blame Arafat, that ugly bastard spat in Israel's face when they offered him everything. BTW, not making a negative statement doesn't mean they promote the positive.
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They are part of the Israeli state. If they want it destroyed they could start by killing themselves. I don't see that happening any time soon, especially because they aren't anti-Israel. Moreover, if they were anti-Israel they wouldn't be "struggl[ing] to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens." Nor would they "support creation of two states based on pre-1967 borders". Why would they support the existence of an Israeli state and oppose it at the same time? Or is that what you're claiming?
 
Khayembii Communique said:
Which part? I've already shown that Balad isn't anti-Israel, and have quoted both the party's chairman and wikipedia. What else do you want? Do you want me to support what I've quoted from wikipedia or something with other sources? I could do that.



They are part of the Israeli state. If they want it destroyed they could start by killing themselves. I don't see that happening any time soon, especially because they aren't anti-Israel. Moreover, if they were anti-Israel they wouldn't be "struggl[ing] to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens." Nor would they "support creation of two states based on pre-1967 borders". Why would they support the existence of an Israeli state and oppose it at the same time? Or is that what you're claiming?
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Yeah, well don't make any bets yet. These people are known to do just that.
 
Earlier in this thread, I noted that Israel has well-defined legal standards and its rule of law extends broad political protections to its citizens. Given Attorney Dana Briskman's opinion that the extent of evidence was not sufficient, I believed that the Election Committee's ban would be reversed by Israel's High Court.

Today, Israel's High Court overturned the Election Committee's decision. The Jerusalem Post reported:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the decision to disqualify Balad and UAL from running for Knesset, accepting two appeals submitted on behalf of the Arab parties...

The nine Supreme Court justices unanimously accepted the UAL appeal, while the Balad appeal was accepted by eight justices against one. The rulings paved the way for the parties to run in the February 10 elections.
 
An earlier post I made highlights the implications of this ban (which the parties that implemented it probably knew would be overturned):

The elections are to be held in February, I believe, so even if the ban is overturned it could have serious implications for these parties' candidates, given that they were focusing attention away from the elections and onto this issue.
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