Right slams Amit for offering Abu Shehadeh withdrawal deal

Coalition lawmakers responded sharply Thursday to High Court president Yitzchak Amit's proposal that Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh withdraw from the Knesset race to avoid a disqualification ruling. In their statements, MKs condemned the offer and demanded a formal verdict against Abu Shehadeh, recalling past disqualifications of right-wing figures Michael Ben-Ari, Benzi Gopstein and Baruch Marzel.

"What Yitzchak Amit is doing here contradicts every concept of law, justice or fairness, and certainly contradicts the law itself," said Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman. "The principle of public proceedings requires that we know the positions and reasoning behind the court's rulings."

According to Rothman, "Yitzchak Amit is making a dark deal here with Abu Shehadeh, with the citizens of the State of Israel as the victims. The people of Israel deserve to know which justices sitting on the High Court are at peace with Abu Shehadeh and his statements. The people of Israel deserve to know their reasoning for trampling the Basic Laws passed by the Knesset."

"Above all, the citizens of Israel deserve to hear a clear and unequivocal statement from our court that support for terror is a bright red line," Rothman concluded. "A statement that will also draw the future boundaries that must not be crossed. The citizens of Israel deserve to receive, for once, in the most clear-cut case, a sense that the High Court belongs to Israel."

Ben-Gvir: "Don't give him the chance to withdraw"

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also argued that "the court's proposal to Abu Shehadeh is too merciful. It is a proposal that harms Israeli democracy. He should not be given the opportunity to withdraw; there needs to be a ruling. With a thousand differences, this same court knew how to issue rulings on Ben-Ari, on Gopstein, on Marzel. And that is a completely different world. Because with Abu Shehadeh, this is support for terror, support for murder, support for massacre."

"I think the court here is simply showing mercy and giving him the option voluntarily," he added. "What is this? Suddenly they forgot to issue a ruling? I think this is a grave mistake. And the victims, the murdered, those whose blood cries out from the ground --- they want a verdict."

MK Yaakov Asher noted that "it is hard to miss the concern and delicacy that Justice Amit displayed toward Abu Shehadeh, to the point where it seems the decision was truly forced upon him, and he preferred to suggest that Abu Shehadeh withdraw on his own just to spare him the precedent of disqualification because he is not at peace with the outcome. And I ask: where was this sensitivity when the proceedings dealt with chareidi children? Where was the empathy when budgets were cut and an entire community was harmed?"

"When Justice Amit speaks about the chareidi public, he allows himself to mock, to belittle those who carry a kosher phone, and to call a huge community 'strange people,'" he concluded. "But when someone who praised the October 7 massacre comes before him, suddenly consideration and courtesy arrive."