3 Arab parties prohibited in Israel

In the midst of the chauvinist frenzy of the Gaza campaign, the repression against the Arab citizens of Israel has been stepped up a notch. Israeli authorities have banned three Arab political parties, barring them from contesting the up-coming February 10 polls. One Arab Knesset member, Ahmed Tibi, stated that the Zionist parties seeks to have 'a parliament without Arabs'. Tibi's party Ta'al is one of the banned parties.

One of the main accusation against the Arab parties is their criticism of state racism in Israel. Essentially, political parties are barred from criticizing state racist policies in Israel, as it is dubbed as questioning the 'Jewish character' of the Israeli state.

Probably Livni, Barak & Co. hopes that through such moves, they can push the Arab population into not participating in the polls and thus giving them a bigger share of Knesset seats. What else to except from those who have killed hundreds of children for the sake of electoral gains?

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(Note: The Supreme Court overruled the decision to ban the three parties on January 21)