On Friday afternoon, Isaac Bam, the attorney for Dr. Michael Ben Ari, chairman of the Jewish Power party, delivered an urgent clarification to the Supreme Court, regarding a series of quotes that were at the center of the Supreme Court’s hearing on Ben Ari’s disqualification from running to the Knesset in the April 9 elections.
The clarification indicates that members of the Reform movement had taken advantage of the fact that the Supreme Court did not compel them to submit full transcripts to support their allegations against Ben Ari, and submitted them out of context.
For example, according to Dr. Ben Ari, in presenting his statements about Haifa Arabs, the Reform movement concealed from the court the fact that the statements had been issued on the same evening when large demonstrations were taking place in Haifa in support of Hamas in Gaza, and that Ben-Ari’s remarks were stripped of the segment where he said he was speaking against the enemies, and the overwhelming majority of Arabs in Haifa, but not against all the Arabs in the State of Israel.
As for statements about the employment of Arabs in Gush Etzion, attorney Bam said the document submitted by appellants to the court concealed the fact that the statements were made after the murder of Ari Fuld, and that in Ben Ari was speaking about Arabs from the Palestinian Authority who are employed in Gush Etzion.
As for Ben Ari’s comments about Bedouin soldiers, the Reform movement hid the fact that this was said in the context of the family unification affair, and that Ben-Ari clarified that it is important for him to point out that he has no problem with Bedouin who serve in the IDF and are loyal to the State of Israel.
Half an hour before the start of Shabbat, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut instructed the court secretariat to accept Ben Ari’s clarifications and disseminate them to her colleagues on the bench as well as to Reform movement with a request for its response.
The Supreme Court will rule on appeals against the Knesset elections committee’s vote not to disqualify Ben-Ari, who, according to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, should be disqualified because of his statements against Israeli Arabs. The court will also rule on appeals against the disqualification of Hadash-Ta’al member Dr. Ofer Cassif and the disqualification of his party’s list, as well as the disqualification of the second Arab party list, Balad-Ra’am.
The right-wing parties union is preparing to launch a huge protest in the event that the court reverses the Knesset’s decision, and Dr. Ben Ari is disqualified while members of the extremist Balad party and the Hadash Ta’al slate, as well as vehemently anti-Zionist Ofer Cassif are allowed to run.