How strong is Israel’s democracy?
Israeli society must let elected Arab Knesset members speak up, even if what they say angers most Israeli Jews and destabilizes consensus.
The Central Elections Committee is a hybrid creature of politics and law. Its head is a veteran Supreme Court justice, and so is his substitute, but his deputies are Knesset members from the large parties, and the members of the committee reflect the party makeup of the Knesset. This is a very important committee that meets not just on the eve of an election, but also functions between elections when new elections are declared, and is entrusted with ensuring proper elections — making sure there are enough voting slips at each polling site, setting the hours the polls open and close, guaranteeing an accurate count of votes, preventing fraud, publicizing election results and ensuring fairness in campaign advertising and publicity.
The most striking decision by a chairman of the committee was made in January 2003, when Supreme Court Justice Mishael Hashin ordered a halt to the television broadcast of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s speech, midway through, because his remarks, in Hashin's opinion, constituted prohibited election propaganda.
The committee is presented with various issues, including the lawfulness of the placement of cameras at polling sites — ostensibly to prevent vote fraud — as well as topics that arise from technological change.
One of the functions of the committee is to endorse and discuss requests to disqualify electoral lists and candidates that do not adhere, allegedly, to the requirements of candidacy. This issue usually ends up in the headlines because it becomes part of the wrangling whereby the right seeks to disqualify elements of the left, and vice versa. If the committee decides to disqualify a candidate or a list from the Knesset, this decision must be authorized by the high court, which usually rejects the disqualification, especially by means of procedural rulings.
