OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 1 January 2003 — A leading Arab-Israeli MP and former adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was barred late Monday from running in upcoming Israeli elections because he was allegedly linked to “terrorist” organizations.
Ahmed Tibi was stripped by the Central Elections Committee of his right to stand in legislative elections set for Jan. 28, parliamentary sources said.
He was thrown out of the race because he “supported terrorist organizations which commit anti-Israeli attacks,” the sources said.
His disqualification by a margin of 21-18 votes was supported by committee members from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right wing Likud and religious parties, but was opposed by the opposition Labor and Meretz, as well as Arab-Israeli, parties.
Tibi, who founded the Arab Movement for Change but was to have been a candidate for the Hadash-Taal party, immediately announced his intention to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, which will have to make a decision by next Thursday.
“It’s a scandalous decision which will prevent an authentic representation of the Arab community to present itself (in the elections),” he told public television.
He slammed the electoral commission for barring him, while only the day before he noted it had “authorized a racist anti-democrat to be a candidate,” referring to its decision to allow the former spokesman for the banned racist movement Kach to run.
Another Arab-Israeli parliamentarian Azmi Bishara yesterday made a plea to the country’s electoral committee to be allowed to run again in January polls, denying having called for the destruction of the Jewish state, officials said.
Bishara said he had “no illusions on the outcome of the debate,” arguing the odds were stacked against him.
In another development, Israeli soldiers killed one Palestinian as violence in the region intensified. Palestinian security officials reported the man’s death near Neve Dekalim settlement before dawn but said it was not clear whether he had been involved in the fighting.
An Israeli military source said soldiers had fired at two armed men, hitting one of them, during the clash.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, an adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said the escalating violence was a deliberate Israeli policy before a Jan. 28 Israeli general election.
“This is a typical Israeli policy: More escalation in order to ruin all the chances of peace and to put obstacles in front of the road map,” he said, referring to a plan by international mediators to calm the violence and restart peace negotiations.
The new bloodshed coincided with large rallies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of the establishment of Arafat’s Fatah faction in 1965.
