(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Israeli Supreme Court said Tuesday it would rule within five days on a decision to ban a firebrand Arab-Israeli MP and an extreme right-wing Jewish activist from running in next month's election.
On Thursday, the Central Elections Committee barred MP Haneen Zuabi, a regular critic of Israel's right-wing government, deeming her to be "hostile to the Jewish state."
It also banned Baruch Marzel for alleged racism.
Both rulings must be approved by the Supreme Court to stand.
Zuabi's disqualification was based solely on "four random quotes" that were never grounds for prosecution, her lawyer told the justices Tuesday.
He also mentioned past elections, in which the court overturned bans on her.
The attorney for Baruch Marzel, a follower of assassinated racist rabbi Meir Kahane, argued that statements against foreign migrants and Arabs attributed to him were never made by him or were misunderstood.
The lawyer also said Mazel's opinions had changed over the years, and that he had publicly renounced Kahane's anti-Arab ideology.
A court spokeswoman said the justices would rule no later than Sunday.
Zuabi rejects the concept of Israel as a Jewish state alongside an independent Palestine. Instead, she supports a single country in which Jews and Arabs have equal rights.
Israel has 1.3 million Arab citizens, or 20 percent of the population. They are the descendents of 160,000 Palestinians who remained on their land when the state of Israel was established in 1948.
Zuabi's opponents point out that she was suspended from parliament in July after declaring that the Palestinians who murdered three Israeli teenagers - an act that set off a series of events leading to a war in the Gaza Strip - were not terrorists.
Her opponents also claim she backed Israel's enemies by participating in a 2010 bid to break its maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. An Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla killed nine Turkish activists.
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