Israeli Arab banned from running for Knesset

Justice minister calls move a 'blunder'

Ahmed Tibi

Story Tools

SPECIAL REPORT • Interactive: Road map explainer • Interactive: Timeline • Map: Occupied lands • Interactive: Key Players • Gallery: Mideast lands •  Special Report ISRAELI ELECTIONS Israel will hold parliamentary elections January 28 to choose a new Knesset and prime minister. Tuesday, the Labor party chose its new leader and candidate for prime minister. Here is how Israeli elections work: • Every Israeli citizen 18 and over is eligible to vote. • Electorate casts votes for party instead of individual candidates. • Parties get a percentage of the 120 seats in the Knesset equal to the percentage of the vote they received. • Following the election, the president chooses a prime minister-designate who has 28 days to submit a list of government ministers.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Despite objections from top officials, Israel's election committee voted Tuesday to strike the candidacy for a seat in parliament of Ahmed Tibi, one of Israel's leading Arab politicians.

Tibi's candidacy was challenged by Knesset member Michael Eitan, a member of Sharon's Likud party. Eitan had charged Tibi with supporting "the armed struggle of terrorist organizations."

Tibi denied the charges and called the committee's vote a "black day for democracy and a slap in the face of the Arab minority."

"I did not support armed struggle," Tibi said in response. "I have never said things like that, and I now reiterate to the public at large, that I condemn in the strongest terms the harming of innocents."

The Central Elections Committee, which is made up principally of politicians from Israel's political parties, voted 21 to 18 with two abstentions to disqualify Tibi from the candidate list in the January 28 elections for the Knesset. Tibi is currently a member.

The action, described as a "blunder" by Israel's justice minister, came a day after the committee voted to allow right-wing Jewish extremist Baruch Marzel to run. The Labor Party is challenging that decision in an appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.

Marzel -- who heads the Kach Movement, which calls for a religious Israeli state and revenge against non-Jews -- has been banned from Knesset candidacy in the past.

In the Tibi case, the committee voted against the recommendation of its chairman, Justice Michael Cheshin, who said that Tibi often makes inflammatory remarks but disqualifying him would be "a bad and incorrect decision."

Israel's Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein also advised the panel not to disqualify Tibi, and Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said the panel should have followed Rubenstein's recommendation.

Tibi said he will appeal to Israel's Supreme Court, which has the final say, and predicted the court will overturn the committee's decision and allow him to run.

Israeli Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's population of 6 million.

Iran poll to go to run-off • U.N.: Truck bomb killed Hariri • EU 'crisis' after summit failure • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues

CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards • Bin Laden deputy sends message • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues • Iran poll to go to run-off