The Fair Trial Party of Larissa Trembovler Amir, wife of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin Yigal Amir, must be prevented from running in the March 2 election, Labor faction chairman Itzik Shmuli wrote on Saturday night to the head of the Central Elections Committee Supreme Court judge Neal Hendel.
Shmuli wrote that it was disgusting that a party that backs Amir’s release from prison would run, and is headed by Trembovler Amir, who Shmuli said justified the assassination. He noted reports that the assassin himself has, from prison, helped the party’s formation.
“This stain cannot be allowed to infect the walls of the Knesset," Shmuli wrote Hendel. “Our democracy does not need to facilitate a man who fired three bullets in its back.”
There is expected to be a majority among the parties in the Central Elections Committee for disqualifying Amir’s party. There is also a majority for a proposal by Likud MK Ophir Katz and MKs in Yisrael Beytenu for disqualifying Balad MK Heba Yazbek.
“She has expressed public support for terrorists and acts of terror, so she cannot be allowed to enjoy the comforts of democracy that she wants to destroy,” Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Oded Forer said.
Blue and White is expected to support the disqualification of Yazbek due to past statements supporting terror attacks against Israelis. Joint List faction chairman Ahmad Tibi called on Blue and White to not bypass Likud on the Right. He said Yazbek has been cleared of charges of supporting terror in the past, and would be again.
The final day to request disqualifications is Thursday. The Central Elections Committee will meet on January 29 to decide on the disqualifications. All disqualifications are then ruled on by the Supreme Court.