BEERSHEBA, Israel

Even amid conflict, Israelis have always applauded

themselves for allowing anyone to run for office -

including those who reject the very raison d'être of a

Jewish state.

Only rarely has a political party been banned from the

elections, the most notable being Kach, the extreme

rightist anti-Arab party founded by Meir Kahane.

But now, with a round of Knesset elections three weeks

away, Israel has much less reason for pride. While Mr.

Kahane's successor, Baruch Marzel, was allowed to run for

office as the No. 2 candidate for another extreme rightist

party, the two most prominent Arab legislators in the

outgoing Knesset, Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara, were barred

by the Central Election Committee last week.

The committee, composed of representatives of the parties

that have Knesset seats and two neutral members (both of

whom opposed the decision), described Mr. Tibi and Mr.

Bishara as consistently expressing opposition to the

existence of a Jewish state (as contrasted with a state of

"all its citizens" in which everyone is equal, Jew or

Arab). Under Israeli law, such opposition bars a person's

candidacy. Mr. Bishara was also accused of supporting armed

resistance in the occupied territories, an accusation he

denied.

Mr. Marzel, whose candidacy was in danger because of his

association with the banned Kach, could run, the committee

members decided, because he had assured them that he no

longer held to the racist policies of Kach - even though he

is often shown on television promoting "transfer," a code

word for the expulsion of the Palestinians from the West

Bank and Gaza.

The final decision on Mr. Tibi's and Mr. Bishara's

candidacies now rests with the Supreme Court, which is

scheduled to hear the candidates' appeals tomorrow. But

even if the court overturns the ban, Israeli Arab voters'

faith in the election system has been broken. The message

could not be clearer: if you are a Jewish extremist, you

can go on the campaign trail. But if you belong to the Arab

minority and do not openly toe the government line, you

cannot be part of the election game.

In the elections held for prime minister just two years

ago, one factor in the defeat of Prime Minister Ehud Barak

was the Arab minority's boycott of the polls. This was seen

by most political commentators as a dangerous step toward

voluntary disenfranchisement of 20 percent of the country.

Arab politicians have worked hard to convince their

constituents that the way to achieve greater economic and

social equality - and to realize the goal of a state for

their Palestinian cousins - is by engaging in the political

process.

But such efforts may now have been in vain. With their two

most outspoken representatives banned, Israeli Arabs are

saying that once again, they will stay away from the polls.

Even if the Supreme Court allows Mr. Tibi and Mr. Bishara

to run, Israeli Arabs will remain reluctant to vote,

because the message of the election committee has been

heard loud and clear in Arab towns and villages.

Who can blame them? No Israeli prime minister has ever

given leaders of the Arab parties significant positions of

power. The argument used to justify the exclusion has been

that cabinet discussions are too sensitive to include

representatives with Palestinian sympathies.

The ban on Mr. Tibi and Mr. Bishara demonstrates that it is

only a short step from excluding parties from the cabinet

to excluding their representatives altogether. By not

protesting this exclusion from government positions, we

have paved the way for the more extreme antidemocracy

measures last week. No matter the decision of the Supreme

Court tomorrow, the damage to Israeli democracy has been

done.



David Newman is professor of political geography at Ben

Gurion University of the Negev.

Court Overturns Israeli Rule to Ban Arab Lawmakers From Office

January 9, 2003

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS







Filed at 10:19 a.m. ET

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Supreme Court restored the

candidacy of two Arab legislators in a ruling Thursday,

overturning a ban that had threatened to bring a tidal wave

of resentment from Israel's large Arab minority.

Also Thursday, four polls conducted in the wake of new

corruption charges indicated that Prime Minister Ariel

Sharon may have lost his wide lead over dovish challenger

Amram Mitzna and is no longer assured victory in the Jan.

28 election.

The slide came after authorities began investigating a .5

million loan that Sharon's sons received from a South

Africa-based businessman to cover payback of improper

campaign funds from a previous election. Sharon planned a

press conference later Thursday to address the allegation.

The high court ruling was rendered by 11 justices, a

number usually reserved for landmark cases. The court

overturned a decision two weeks ago by the Central Election

Commission to disqualify Arab legislators Azmi Bishara and

Ahmed Tibi on grounds they sided with Israel's enemies.

The court ruled unanimously on Tibi and 7-4 on Bishara. The

judges' arguments were not immediately released.

Bishara hailed the decision as a victory for Israeli

democracy and said it would help reassure the country's

Arab citizens. ``Arabs in Israel will have a feeling they

are not orphans of Israeli democracy, they are citizens of

Israel,'' Bishara said.

The legislator said he expected a high turnout by Arab

voters in the upcoming election and that this could hurt

Sharon's re-election chances. A strong showing by Arab

parties could deprive Israel's right wing of a majority in

parliament.

Many of Israel's 1.2 million Arab citizens -- more than a

sixth of the population -- saw the case as a watershed in

their troubled relations with the Jewish majority. Israeli

Arabs have long complained of discrimination at the hands

of Israeli governments, and the disqualification of Bishara

and Tibi was seen as an attempt to curb the Arab voice.

The Central Election Commission had accused Bishara of

inciting violence against Israel, including during a trip

to Syria where he praised Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas,

while Tibi allegedly sided with Yasser Arafat and his

Palestinian Authority against the Jewish state. Both

legislators denied the charges, saying they oppose

violence, and were simply criticizing Israeli government

policy.

In other decisions, the high court upheld the candidacy of

Baruch Marzel, a Jewish extremist who was once a leading

figure in Kach, a movement founded by U.S.-born Rabbi Meir

Kahane and later outlawed as racist.

The court also disqualified the candidacy of Defense

Minister Shaul Mofaz, saying he had not been out of the

army long enough to run for parliament. Mofaz is a former

army chief of staff.

Thursday's polls indicated that Sharon's right-wing Likud

party is continuing to ground ahead of elections for the

120-member parliament, a trend that began about a month

ago.

Under the Israeli system, voters choose parties, not

candidates for prime minister. A party leader must stitch

together a majority coalition to win the premiership, and

as Likud slips, the task of forming a government that once

looked like an automatic Sharon success becomes less

clear-cut.

A survey in the Haaretz daily showed Likud winning 27

seats, down from about 40 at the beginning of the campaign

in November. Labor was up from 22 to 24.

According to the Haaretz poll, Likud and its allies would

win only 61 seats, a bare majority, down from 67 in

November, while Labor and its partners would receive 40

seats, up from 27. Centrist parties -- Shinui and Am Echad

-- would get 19, the poll predicted. The Haaretz-Dialogue

poll questioned 521 eligible voters and had a margin of

error of 4.3 percentage points.

A survey for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper gave Likud 28

seats, Labor 22 and Shinui 17. It polled 653 people and

cited a 3.4 percent margin of error.

The Maariv daily's poll showed Likud winning 30 seats,

Labor 22 and Shinui 14. Like Haaretz, it projected the

right-wing bloc overall as commanding 61 seats. It said it

questioned 1,000 people but gave no margin of error.

Another survey, conducted by Geocartographia for Israeli

army radio showed Likud getting 32 seats, Labor 20 and

Shinui 15. The radio did not give its poll's margin of

error.

The surveys were taken after Haaretz printed a leaked

Justice Ministry document that showed that police were

investigating Sharon and his sons in connection with the

South African loan.

Israel's attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein, confirmed

Wednesday that a police investigation is under way and that

Israel had asked for South African assistance.

Likud was already losing momentum because of a scandal over

alleged payoffs, shakedowns and other corruption in

internal elections for its list of candidates for

parliament.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Politics.html?ex=1043132247&ei=1&en=f56e36eeacdb1869