JERUSALEM: Israel’s electoral committee voted on Wednesday to disqualify a party representing Palestinians in Israel that could play a kingmaking role after next month’s elections, as well as two candidates.

The decisions are not final and will have to be approved by the Supreme Court, which in the past has overturned most such disqualifications.

Responding to a request from members of the ruling coalition, the Central Elections Committee said it would not allow on the ballot the United Arab List, which in 2021 joined a short-lived coalition that removed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power.

The Arab group recently took the unprecedented step of recruiting a Jewish candidate, Yoav Segalovitz, who during the 2021-22 government was credited with improving safety in Arab-Israeli areas.

Arab Israelis, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the State of Israel’s creation in 1948, make up about 20 percent of the population.

Until the 2021 election, they had stayed out of government coalitions.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee is made up of lawmakers with seats attributed based on the share of the general electoral vote each party holds.

The committee also voted to disqualify sitting member of parliament Ofer Cassif and Sami Abu Shehadeh, who leads the left-wing Palestinian Balad party and served in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, from 2019 to 2022.

The committee said in a statement that it had based its decision to disqualify Abu Shehadeh’s candidacy on two grounds: “Denying the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and supporting the armed struggle of an enemy state or terrorist organisation against the State of Israel.”

The request to disqualify Abu Shehadeh was submitted by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who criticised his response to the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the deadliest ever on Israel.

In a video statement reacting to the decision, Abu Shehadeh said he would not back down.

“This development will not scare us,” he said.

“Racists are afraid of equality, and Ben Gvir and Netanyahu are afraid of the Arab vote in this electoral battle.”

Adalah, a legal group that represents Israel’s Arab minority and represents Cassif and Abu Shehadeh, said there was “no legal basis” for the decisions to disqualify them.

The general elections will be held on October 27, with polls showing Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, in a tight race to stay in power.

In previous elections, the Supreme Court invalidated most attempts at disqualifications, but in 2019 it barred far-right candidate Michael Ben-Ari from running, overturning the Central Elections Committee’s decision to approve his candidacy for the first time.