Balad chair Sami Abu Shehadeh calls Yair Golan a racist after disqualification

Sami Abu Shehadeh, the chair of the Arab party Balad, has publicly attacked Yair Golan after Golan voted in favour of disqualifying him. Speaking to Radio A-Nas after the disqualification, Abu Shehadeh called Golan a racist, according to a post by the political commentator Amit Segal. In the same interview he urged Arab voters who were not persuaded to support the Joint List to choose only Ra'am as an alternative, and said the community must not open the door to Zionist parties.

The criticism did not stop at the radio studio. The Abu Ali Express channel reported that Abu Shehadeh was still angry over Golan's vote and repeated his attack at a "house meeting", a small gathering of supporters typically held in a private home. News.co.il carried the same account, in wording identical to the Abu Ali Express post.

Who the two politicians are

Balad is one of the Arab-led parties in Israeli politics, and Abu Shehadeh is its chair. Yair Golan is a Jewish Israeli politician from the centre-left. The reports do not describe the office or role in which Golan cast his vote, only that he voted in favour of the disqualification.

The quoted remarks show Abu Shehadeh drawing a sharp line between Arab parties and what he called the Zionist parties. His message to voters, as reported by Segal, set a clear order of preference: first the Joint List, and if not the Joint List, then Ra'am and no other party.

The parties Abu Shehadeh named

The Joint List is the name used for an alliance of Arab-led parties that has run together in past Israeli elections. Ra'am, known in English as the United Arab List, is a separate Arab party with an Islamist background that has at times run apart from the other Arab factions and taken a different approach to cooperation with Jewish-led parties. Abu Shehadeh's instruction to vote "only" for Ra'am as a fallback suggests he regards it as the acceptable alternative within the Arab political camp, even though it is a rival list.

By "Zionist parties", a term commonly used in Arab Israeli political discourse, Abu Shehadeh was referring to the Jewish-led parties across the spectrum, a category that would include Golan's.

How disqualification works in Israel

In Israel, attempts to bar a party or candidate from standing in a national election are generally decided by the Central Elections Committee, a body made up largely of representatives of the parties in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Its decisions on such matters can be brought before the Supreme Court. Arab parties and candidates have been the target of disqualification requests in several past election cycles.

None of the reports used here states which body disqualified Abu Shehadeh, what the disqualification applies to, or on what grounds. That background is offered only to explain the kind of process such votes usually belong to, not as a description of this case.

What the reports do not say

The material is brief, and several basic points remain unclear:

• Which body voted on the disqualification, and whether it concerned Abu Shehadeh personally, Balad as a party, or both.
• The grounds cited for the disqualification and the result of the vote beyond Golan's position.
• Whether the decision has been or will be appealed.
• Where and when the house meeting took place, and what exactly Abu Shehadeh said there.
• Whether Golan has responded to being called a racist.

The direct quotes come from a single source, the Amit Segal channel, which attributes them to the Radio A-Nas interview. The account of the house meeting comes from two outlets that published the same text.