Israel’s Central Elections Committee bans Arab Labor candidate over anti-Zionist statements

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Feb 18, 2021 | News | People | Politics | National
Israel’s Central Elections Committee bans Arab Labor candidate over anti-Zionist statements

Israel Hayom via JNS
By Gideon Allon

The panel’s decision to bar Ibtisam Mara’ana from participating in Israel’s March 23 election now heads to the Supreme Court.

Israel’s Central Election Committee (CEC) voted on Wednesday to ban Labor candidate Ibtisam Mara’ana from vying in the March 23 election over her past anti-Zionist statements.

Mara’ana, a controversial Arab Israeli filmmaker from Jaffa, has faced criticism for her remarks on the Israel Defense Forces, and for her public refusal to observe the two-minute siren on Memorial Day—for which she later apologized on social media—and many other anti-Zionist comments. Her nomination to the seventh slot on Labor’s Knesset list sparked a public uproar, prompting petitions to have her disqualified.

Under Israel’s Basic Law: The Knesset, a list or candidate can be disqualified to run in elections for denying Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, inciting racism, or supporting armed struggle, by a hostile state or a terrorist organization, against the state.

As stipulated by the law, the CEC’s decision must now be affirmed by the Supreme Court to take effect.

This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Caption: Labor Party member Ibtisam Mara'ana attends a party meeting in Tel Aviv on Feb. 2, 2021.
Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.


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