Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, together with Prof. Frances Raday, former Defense Minister and IDF Chief of Staff Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon, former Minister Yael German, former Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, and diplomat Yoram Ben-Ze’ev, filed a petition with the Central Elections Committee (CEC) seeking to bar the Religious Zionism-Zehut list from participating in the elections for the 26th Knesset, and to disqualify the candidacies of Bezalel Smotrich, Moshe Feiglin, and Zvi Sukkot.
The petition is based on Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, which prohibits participation in elections of a list whose objectives or actions negate the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state or constitute incitement to racism. According to the petitioners, both grounds apply to the Religious Zionism-Zehut list.
At the heart of the petition is the argument that at stake is not a collection of isolated or aberrant statements by individual candidates, but a consistent and sustained political worldview reflected in the positions and actions of key figures on the list. According to the petition, this worldview includes denying Palestinians and Arabs political and civil equality on the basis of their national affiliation, calls to exclude Arab parties from the political arena, portraying the Arab and Palestinian populations as a collective threat, and promoting policies of control, emigration, and differential rights based on nationality. With respect to Smotrich, for example, the petition emphasizes the combination of a consistent ideological position, policy proposals, recurrent statements, and political actions aimed at translating that ideology into action.
According to the petitioners, when these positions are voiced by the list’s leaders and top candidates, repeatedly and systematically over a period of years, they cannot be regarded as marginal personal views. Rather, they demonstrate the list’s objectives and actions and the manner in which it seeks to use governmental power if elected.
The petition emphasizes that disqualifying a list is an extraordinary measure requiring clear, unequivocal, and compelling substantiation and a “critical mass” of evidence. Nevertheless, according to the petitioners, this is precisely the type of case for which Section 7A was intended: a situation where participation in elections is used as a means of advancing a worldview that undermines the fundamental principles of a democratic regime or incites to racism. Case law requires such an objective to be central and dominant and to be reflected in systematic rather than sporadic activity, and according to the petition, both these conditions are met in this case.
Accordingly, the petitioners ask the CEC to determine that the Religious Zionism-Zehut list is barred from participating in the elections for the 26th Knesset under Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, on the grounds that it denies the existence of the State of Israel as a democratic state and incites to racism.
Subsequent Developments:
On 16 September 2026, the petitioners requested to introduce additional evidence: an official Religious Zionism-Zehut campaign video produced with artificial intelligence and published the previous day. The video depicts senior judicial officials being forcibly removed under the slogan “Unclogging the System,” alongside a plan to alter the composition of the Supreme Court, dismiss the Attorney General, and enact an override clause. The video reinforces the petitioners’ claims that the list seeks to undermine the status of the judiciary and law-enforcement authorities as fundamental components of a democratic regime. The CEC Chairman granted the request for reconsideration and permitted the video to be submitted as additional evidence.
