Turkish and Greek Communists condemn Israel Joint List ban
In a strikingly anti-democratic move, on Wednesday, the Israeli Central Elections Committee (CEC) voted to bar the Joint List, an alliance comprising the Arab Balad and Ta’al parties, the communist-led Arab-Jewish Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), and a fourth conservative Islamic party.
"The disqualifications are a malicious attempt by Netanyahu and Ben Gvir to steal the election and silence the voices of millions,” the Joint List alliance, headed by Hadash, said in a statement.
As the UK Morning Star newspaper noted "for decades, Israel has always propagated its self-proclamation as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” creating the illusion of a state which gives equal rights for both its Jewish and Arab citizens. But on Wednesday, the Central Electoral Committee delivered a harsh blow to this myth."
Both the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) have issued statements denouncing the move.
The KKE strongly condemns the anti-democratic decision taken on 23 September 2026 by Israel’s Central Elections Committee, to exclude the lists of all Arab political coalitions and candidatesfrom the elections, including the candidacy of our comrade of Jewish origin, Ofer Cassif, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel and an elected Member of Parliament.
This unacceptable and anti-democratic practice by the Israeli occupying state once again demonstrates the class nature of bourgeois democracy, particularly in the current context of imperialist interventions and wars, while the State of Israel ruthlessly and in cold blood murders the heroic people of Palestine and the people of Lebanon as part of the plan that aims to “reshape” the wider Middle East.
The New Democracy government and the forces of the sinful social democracy, along with the rest of the convenient opposition, who, for years now have been proclaiming Israel to be a strategic ally of our country, and praising it as “the only democracy” in the Middle East, while the bourgeois Israeli state commits crimes against all neighboring peoples and, at the same time, suppresses every democratic right and achievement within the country itself, have been exposed.
Dear comrades,
We would like to express our strong condemnation of the decision to bar the Joint List, which includes the Communist Party of Israel and Hadash, from participating in the elections. This attempt by the Zionist forces is completely unacceptable.
For many years, the Communist Party of Israel and the Hadash front, led by the party, have been the voice of conscience and the sole hope of the people in Israel. They have constituted one of the most important pillars of the just struggle of the Palestinian people, who are oppressed under the yoke of Zionism.
It is clear what the Zionist forces are seeking to achieve. They fear the result that the Joint List will obtain in the elections and are attempting to silence the voice of the Israeli communists.
However, preventing Hadash or Comrade Ofer Cassif from participating in the elections absolutely does not mean that their struggle can also be prevented. The Communist Party of Israel will continue its determined struggle, which it has waged for many years, under all circumstances. In this struggle, the Communist Party of Turkey will always stand alongside the Communist Party of Israel.
With comradely greetings,
TKP Central Committee
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