At noon March 17, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s new right-wing party held a press conference to launch its new election campaign and its slogan, “Shaked will defeat the High Court, Bennett will defeat Hamas.” In response to Al-Monitor’s question about the meaning of the slogan, Shaked said that there wasn’t an intent to equate Hamas and the High Court, but that Bennett is aiming to become the defense minister who would deal with Hamas, and that she, as justice minister, would continue dealing with the judicial system and the High Court.
That evening, the High Court announced its decision to ban the candidacy for the Knesset of Michael Ben Ari, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) Party, because of his racist statements and calls to harm Arabs. On the other hand, the court decided to overturn the decision of the Central Election Committee to ban the candidate of the Hadash Party, Ofer Cassif, who has said, among other things, that he doesn’t oppose harming an Israeli Defense Forces soldier in the territories, that Netanyahu is the murderer-in-chief and that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. The high court further ruled that it wouldn’t ban the joint list of the two Arab parties Balad and Raam.
