Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, together with former Defense Minister and IDF Chief of Staff Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon, former Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, Prof. Frances Raday, former Minister Yael German, and diplomat Yoram Ben-Ze’ev, filed a petition with the Central Elections Committee (CEC) seeking to disqualify the candidacies of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Tali Gottlieb, Limor Son Har-Melech, and Hanamel Dorfman, and to bar the Otzma Yehudit party from participating in the elections for the 26th Knesset.
The petition, filed by Adv. Gilad Barnea, is based on Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, which is intended to limit participation in elections of a candidate or party whose objectives or actions negate Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state or include incitement to racism. According to the petitioners, the cumulative body of evidence regarding the respondents points to a systematic and sustained pattern, rather than isolated or exceptional statements.
With respect to Ben-Gvir, Har-Melech, Dorfman, and Otzma Yehudit, the petition alleges that they continue the ideological path of the Kach movement and promote a worldview based on discrimination between Jews and Arabs, exclusion of Arab citizens, and harm to the principles of equality and human dignity. These views go beyond mere rhetoric, and are translated into political activity, legislative proposals, and the exercise of governmental power.
As for Gottlieb, the petition focuses on the harm to the fundamental principles of a democratic regime. Gottlieb does not merely criticize the judicial system, but consistently expresses the position that court rulings are not necessarily binding on the government, that the authority of the Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice should be curtailed, and that the political majority should not be subject to effective constitutional constraints. This conception undermines the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the independence of the judiciary.
At the heart of the petition is a fundamental principle of democracy, whereby a self-preserving democracy is not required to confer the power of its institutions on those who seek to use them to undermine equality, the rule of law, and the foundations of the democratic regime. Section 7A was designed precisely for exceptional situations where participation in the democratic arena becomes a vehicle for advancing racist or anti-democratic objectives.
Accordingly, Zulat and the other petitioners ask the CEC to exercise its authority to disqualify the candidates and determine that the Otzma Yehudit party is barred from participating in the elections for the 26th Knesset.
