Tuesday, January 13, 2009  Israel Related articles 24 July 2021: Algerian judoka suspended from Olympics for refusing to face Israeli 7 June 2021: Israel opposition parties announce coalition, form new government 5 March 2021: International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Palestine 8 February 2021: International Criminal Court rules its jurisdiction includes Palestine 2 November 2020: On the campaign trail in the USA, October 2020 Location of Israel Collaborate! Pillars of Wikinews writing Writing an article Israel's Central Election Committee voted yesterday to disqualify two Arab political parties from running in the country's general elections scheduled for February 10th. The committee voted 26–3 to disqualify the Arab political party Balad, and 21–3 with eight abstentions to disqualify an alliance of parties United Arab List and Ta'al. The UAL-Ta'al is sometimes also called Ra'am Ta'al. A "stormy" debate was initiated by petitions from rival parties that accuse UAL-Ta'al and Balad of undermining Israel and supporting violence against it. Arab committee members including Ahmed Tibi, leader of UAL-Ta'al, walked out of the committee before the vote. Tibi condemned the ruling saying, "It was a political trial led by a group of fascists and racists who are willing to see the Knesset without Arabs and want to see the country without Arabs." Arabs constitute one fifth of the population in Israel but only have twelve of 120 parliamentary seats. Arabs say that they face daily discrimination. Other parties associated with the Arab-Israeli minority, such as Hadash, are not affected by the committee's decision. Israel's High Court of Justice reversed a similar attempt to ban Balad in 2003, and has until Friday to rule on yesterday's votes. "Israel disqualifies Arab parties" — BBC News Online, January 12, 2009 "Israel poll ban for Arab parties" — Al Jazeera, January 12, 2009 Shelly Paz. "Elections C'tee bans UAL, Balad lists" — The Jerusalem Post, January 12, 2009
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