Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted 31-4 on September 23 to disqualify Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh from the October 27 Knesset race, citing an October 8, 2023 article in which he described Hamas’s attack as an “important historic event” and the grounds under Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset for supporting armed struggle against the state. Committee chair Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg broke with precedent to join the majority, and on September 29 Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and the State Attorney filed a Supreme Court brief urging approval of the ban. The decision requires court ratification, yet the breadth of cross-party backing and the attorney general’s position have produced trader consensus that Abu Shehadeh is effectively barred from the ballot.