The Central Election Committee rejected a petition on Wednesday to bar the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Michael Ben Ari, from running in the Israeli general election.
Prior to deliberations, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit filed his opinion to the committee, stating he was in favor of disqualifying Ben Ari from running for Knesset on the grounds of incitement to racism. He based his opinion against Ben Ari on several statements the latter has made in recent years.
In one incident in 2018, Ben Ari said, “The Arabs of Haifa aren’t different in any way from the Arabs of Gaza. How are they different? In that they’re here, enemies from within. They’re waging war against us here, within the state. And this is called – it has a name – it’s called a fifth column." | | |
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