A month and a half before the local government elections, the legal adviser to the government is examining a request to disqualify Otzma Yehudit's list in the local government elections for inciting racism and denying the democratic nature of the State of Israel.
In the last election campaigns, the Supreme Court approved the 'Otzma Yehudit' list to run for the Knesset - although it removed 3 of its representatives: Ben Ari, Gopstein and Marzel. Now the party may be disqualified in a way that will probably also affect the other lists in the country.
The left-wing organizations 'Tag Meir' and the 'Reform Center for Religion and State' appealed to the legal advisor of the government to disqualify the Otzma Yehudit list running in the Ma'ale Adumim council elections. The reformers are the ones who submitted the requests to disqualify Otzma Yehudit - a request that was rejected and the requests to disqualify the members of the list - requests that were accepted. This time they again want to disqualify the entire list. Tag Meir petitioned against the appointment of Ben-Gvir as Minister of National Security - a petition that was also rejected.
"We believe that in the goals or actions of the "Otzma Yehudit" list led by Moti Peretz, which seeks to run in the Ma'ale Adumim city council elections, explicitly or implicitly, there is a negation of the democratic nature of the state as well as incitement to racism."
The request was sent even before the list was submitted
It is interesting to note that the appeal of the left-wing organizations to the Ombudsman was made on September 19, a day before the list was even submitted, but the request was not rejected outright.
Although the Supreme Court has already confirmed several times, as mentioned, Otzma Yehudit's candidacy in the Knesset elections, Deputy Legal Adviser Avital Sompolinski did not reject the request outright but turned to Peretz the next day, Yom Kippur (Tuesday), so that it would respond within a day to the statement of claims containing 94 pages (including appendices).
"As long as your reference is not submitted by the aforementioned date, a decision will be made regarding what is alleged against her based on the material before us," Sompolinski wrote to Peretz, but added: "It will be clarified that this does not imply a transfer of position regarding the request to the body."
The decision will go to Judge Sohlberg
The schedule is tight both because of the holidays and because of the time when parties can be approved or rejected. The ball is currently in the hands of the legal adviser to the government, if she decides to order the disqualification of the party, the decision will pass into the hands of the chairman of the central election committee - Judge Noam Sohlberg. Sohlberg will have to decide whether he discusses the decision or forward it to the regional election committee. In any case, every decision that will be made will be appealed before the Supreme Court, which, as mentioned, has already approved the party's run for the Knesset.
Any decision regarding the local matter of Ma'ale Adumim may affect the other cities in the country where the party ran on its behalf.