Outspoken Arab candidate barred from Knesset election

The 27 members of the Central Elections Committee (CEC) voted overwhelmingly in favor of barring Zoabi from the parliamentary election on March 17, with just six votes against the motion, as Israel Radio reported. She was disqualified ahead of the 2013 elections as well, only to have the supreme court overturn the decision, which might happen this time as well.

The attorney-general had advised against disqualifying Zoabi. Some of her statements might be radical and "worrying," the attorney-general had said, but there was little proof that she supported an armed struggle against Israel - which would have provided the ground for disqualification under Israeli law.

Salim Joubran, head of the CEC and the only Arab justice on the panel, condemned later what he called a tradition of the committee voting to disqualify a candidate only to have the supreme court overturn the decision.

Zoabi, from the Arab town of Nazareth in northern Israel, has offended fellow-parliamentarians with her feisty and abrasive style. She has been accused by right-wing Israelis of being a "traitor" for siding with the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel.

The politician called her latest disqualification "unjust" as well as "racist" and said that she was going to appeal against the decision. She often refers to the country as "racist" and had boycotted the playing of the national anthem at the time of her swearing-in. After Thursday's vote, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann commented in a statement that Zoabi belonged with "the Hamas terrorists in Gaza."

Zoabi has been active in Palestinian causes and even participated in the pro-Palestinian flotilla which tried to reach Gaza in 2010 despite Israel's naval blockade. Nine activists were killed when Israeli soldiers boarded the ship.

The Central Election Committee also decided to disqualify a hawkish Israeli activist, Baruch Marzel, with a vote of 17 against 16.

ac/rc (dpa, AP)