Israel’s election panel voted to bar major Arab-led slates. The ballot is not settled.

Israeli voters cannot yet know exactly which choices will appear on their October 27 ballot. The Central Elections Committee voted to exclude Ra’am, the Joint List and two individual candidates, while allowing Otzma Yehudit to run. But those decisions follow different legal routes—and several are provisional.

That distinction matters because a committee vote to “bar” someone can sound final when it is not. Under Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, a list or candidate may be excluded for rejecting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, inciting racism, or supporting armed struggle by an enemy state or terrorist organization. Allegations made under those grounds are not established facts merely because the committee accepts an application.

The Israel Democracy Institute explains that an excluded party list may appeal to the Supreme Court. Excluding an individual candidate works differently: the decision must automatically receive the Court’s approval. Adalah, which represented the excluded lists and candidates, says it will represent them before the Court.

Five proceedings, different next steps

The Knesset Channel’s institutional account of the proceedings records important differences in the attorney general’s positions. Her representatives opposed excluding Ra’am, saying the material did not meet the demanding evidentiary threshold. They also found the evidence insufficient against the Joint List and Cassif.

In Abu Shehadeh’s case, however, the attorney general did not expressly recommend exclusion but urged the committee to consider the matter seriously. That was a distinct position based on the record presented in his case, not a general conclusion about the challenged Arab politicians.

The position on Otzma Yehudit was qualified in another way: the attorney general said the party approached the prohibited line dangerously closely but did not cross the stringent threshold for exclusion. The committee then rejected the applications against it.

Why the judicial stage can change the result

The committee is chaired by a Supreme Court justice, but its membership is largely political, with representatives allocated according to parties’ strength in the outgoing Knesset. The Supreme Court conducts a separate legal examination.

The Israel Democracy Institute’s historical review shows that the Court has overturned numerous committee exclusions, including earlier decisions involving Ra’am-Balad, Balad and Cassif. Judicial review can also move in the opposite direction: in 2019, the Court excluded Michael Ben Ari and later Baruch Marzel and Bentzi Gopstein after the committee had allowed them to run.

The practical picture is therefore narrower than the rhetoric surrounding the hearings. Ra’am and the Joint List lost at the committee stage and may challenge those decisions. Cassif and Abu Shehadeh cannot be finally excluded without Supreme Court approval. Otzma Yehudit remains cleared at the committee stage, with no appeal established in the available evidence. The Court will determine the challenged list appeals and whether the two individual exclusions take effect—not every committee decision discussed here.