Disqualification of Electoral Lists and Candidates by the Central Elections Committee

In Israel any individual or organization can request the disqualification of an electoral list - also interesting to note that there is no equivalent to the Central Elections Committee in any other democratic state

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Procedure for requesting a disqualification

Any individual or organization can request the disqualification of an electoral list. In the case of a specific candidate, the request must be signed by at least three members of the Central Elections Committee. If the Committee decides to disqualify a list, its decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court, which conducts a hearing in a special forum. In the case of a candidate, the Committee’s decision is automatically referred to the Supreme Court for review, and the Court may either uphold or overrule it. According to a protocol published by the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, the chair may reject out of hand a request for disqualification if it does not meet the criteria specified in law.

Criteria for disqualification:

According to section 7a of the Basic Law: The Knesset, a list or candidate may be disqualified from running in the elections if their goals, actions, or statements explicitly or implicitly include one of the following:

1. Negation of the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state
2. Incitement to racism
3. Support for armed struggle against the State of Israel by a terrorist organization or enemy state

Decisions by the Central Elections Committee over the years

The body that has the authority to disqualify is the Central Election Commission, which consists of about 30 faction representatives in the outgoing Knesset and is headed by a Supreme Court judge. Most requests for disqualification are submitted against Arab or far-right lists and candidates. In most cases, the Committee’s decisions to disqualify are overruled by the Supreme Court, though there have also been cases in which candidates who were approved by the Committee were disqualified by the Court.

Since the 1985 amendment to the Basic Law: The Knesset, listing criteria for disqualification, of the 15 cases in which the Committee disqualified lists or candidates, only three disqualifications were upheld by the Supreme Court (the Kach party in 1988, and the Kach and Kahane Chai parties in 1992), all of them on the grounds of incitement to racism. In addition, in three cases the Committee approved candidates who were subsequently disqualified by the Supreme Court (also on the grounds of incitement to racism): In April 2019, the Court disqualified a candidate (Michael Ben-Ari) who had not been disqualified by the Committee, and in September 2019, two other candidates were disqualified in the same way (Ben-Zion Gopstein and Baruch Marzel).

No equivalent of the Central Elections Committee exists in any other democratic state

Dr. Blander notes that, “Only in Israel is a political body given the power to limit the right to be elected. The fact that this power is given to a political body comprising representatives of parties in the outgoing Knesset (including Knesset members currently serving) according to their relative strength in that Knesset, means that this is like having the fox guard the henhouse. Despite attempts to grant the Committee a semi-judicial character, its discussions resemble those of the Knesset plenum at best, and at worst, consist of inciteful and insulting discourse.”

Party Lists and Candidates Disqualified from Running in Knesset Elections by the Central Elections Committee and Court Rulings, 1965–2020The table includes only cases in which the Central Elections Committee disqualified lists or candidates.

Year of election	List/candidate	Supreme Court ruling	Supreme Court case (appeal/referral)
1965*	Socialists’ List	Upheld	Appeal 1/65, Yeredur v. Central Elections Committee (6th Knesset)
1984*	Kach	Overruled	Appeal 23/84, Neiman v. Chair of the Central Elections Committee (11th Knesset)
	Progressive List for Peace	Overruled
1988	Kach	Upheld	Appeal 1/88 Neiman v. Chair of the Central Elections Committee (12th Knesset)
1992	Kach	Upheld	Appeal 2805/92 Kach v. Chair of the Central Elections Committee (13th Knesset)
	Kahane Chai	Upheld	Appeal 2858/92 Movshovitz Chair of the Central Elections Committee (13th Knesset)
2003	Balad	Overruled	Appeal 131/03 National Democratic Alliance (Balad) v. Central Elections Committee (16th Knesset)
	Azmi Bashara (Balad)	Overruled	Referral 11280/02 Central Elections Committee (16th Knesset) v. MK Ahmed Tibi, MK Azmi Bashara
	Ahmed Tibi (Ta’al)	Overruled
2009	Balad	Overruled	Appeal 561/09 National Democratic Alliance (Balad) and United Arab List and Arab Movement for Renewal (Ra’am-Ta’al) v. Central Elections Committee (18th Knesset)
	Ra’am-Ta’al	Overruled
2013	Haneen Zoabi (Balad)	Overruled	Referral 9255/12 02 Central Elections Committee (19th Knesset) v. MK Haneen Zoabi
2015	Baruch Marzel	Overruled	Referral 1095/15 1096/15 Central Elections Committee (20th Knesset) v. MK Haneen Zoabi
	Haneen Zoabi (Balad)	Overruled
Apr-19	Ra’am-Balad	Overruled	Appeal 1876/19 Ra’am-Balad v. Central Elections Committee (21st Knesset)
	Ofer Cassif (Hadash)	Overruled	Referral 1806/19
			The Committee did not disqualify Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir. An appeal was submitted to the Supreme Court, and Ben-Ari was disqualified.
Sep-19			The Committee did not disqualify any list or candidate, but appeals against its decision not to disqualify the Otzma Yehudit list and its three candidates (Ben-Zion Gopstein, Baruch Marzel, and Itamar Ben-Gvir) were submitted to the Supreme Court. The Court upheld the non-disqualification of the list, but barred Gopstein and Marzel from running.
Mar-20	Hiba Yazbek (Joint List)	Overruled	Referral 852/20
	Mishpat Tzedek, headed by Dr. Larissa Amir	Overruled	Appeal 922/20

* Cases prior to the adoption of section 7a of the Basic Law: The Knesset