Sami Abu Shehadeh, the leader of the Arab nationalist Balad party, withdrew from Israel’s Oct. 27 parliamentary election on Friday after the Supreme Court warned it was prepared to disqualify him.
His announcement came a day after the court began hearing appeals against decisions by Israel’s Central Elections Committee to disqualify Arab electoral lists and candidates from the vote. The committee had barred two main Arab lists from the ballot in late September, part of what Al Jazeera described as increased efforts by Israeli authorities to block Arab Israeli parties from taking part.
At a hearing on Thursday, the justices advised Mr. Abu Shehadeh to drop out, telling him the court could otherwise issue a ruling disqualifying him outright. He announced his withdrawal on Friday.
“Leaving the campaign was the most difficult decision of my political career,” Mr. Abu Shehadeh said, according to the Times of Israel.
Other Arab candidates fared better before the same court. The justices allowed the Ra’am party, the Joint List and Ofer Cassif to run, finding that the evidence presented to the elections committee did not meet the narrow legal standard for barring an entire candidate list from an election, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Balad is a secular Palestinian nationalist party that has long drawn the ire of Israel’s right-wing governments, and its leader’s exit leaves Palestinian citizens of Israel with a narrower slate of choices. Palestinian participation in the coming Knesset vote has been shrinking for weeks, Al Jazeera reported. The election is scheduled for Oct. 27.