Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“In the run-up to Israel’s Oct. 27 election, the country’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that a key minority (the two main parties representing Arab Israelis) could not be banned from participating. The decision serves as a marker of democracy in a political system that protects the rights of minorities in instances when one side has an overwhelming majority. The ban, recently approved by an election commission dominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, would have effectively disenfranchised the one-fifth of Israeli citizens who are of Arab Palestinian heritage. In the wake of the October 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas, many right-wing Jewish Israelis have pushed for not only punitive military action in Gaza and forcible expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, but also curtailment of the rights of Israeli Arabs.” (10/05/26)