Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said Sunday that it would file a request with the Central Elections Committee (CEC) to ban the Arab-majority Ra’am and Joint List parties from running in the October 27 election.

Such a ban is unlikely to hold up in court even if passed by the CEC.

“There is no room in the Knesset for those who harm IDF soldiers and are unable to say that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations,” Likud claimed in a statement, repeating a campaign talking point that premiership rival Gadi Eisenkot wants to ally with them.

Polls indicate that neither Netanyahu’s supporters nor his Zionist opponents, led by Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar, will secure a clear majority in parliament.

Without defectors from Netanyahu’s bloc, the Zionist anti-Netanyahu parties will likely need the support of at least one Arab-majority party to govern.

Ra’am, which is more traditionalist and more open to such a collaboration than the Joint List, was a member of the anti-Netanyahu government that briefly held power in 2021-2022, but several of the premier’s Zionist opponents have since said they would not form a government with any Arab........

© The Times of Israel