Israel's Supreme Court overturned a ban on Thursday on two Arab candidates for Parliament in the January 28 election, a decision which some said will lead to greater Arab participation in the vote.The court ruled against a Parliamentary committee recommendation to bar Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara from the ballot.It also rejected a petition by Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former chief of staff, to run for Parliament. The court found that a mandatory cooling-off period since his retirement from the army last summer had not expired, disqualifying him from joining the legislature.But Mofaz can remain in his post and serve in the next cabinet even if he is not a legislator.Tibi welcomed the court’s decision as a ‘‘victory for all those who stood firm’’ against the elections committee decision last month to ban him and Bishara over alleged support for Palestinian attacks on Israelis in an uprising for statehood.‘‘We ask the Arab community to go the ballot box in order to bring down the Israeli right wing,’’ Tibi said.Tibi, of the Arab-Jewish Hadash party, is a former adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Tibi and Bishara, of the Balad party, have denied allegations by right wingers on the committee that they support anti-Israeli violence.‘‘There was the danger that the Israeli Arab community would not have participated in the elections, and I think the Supreme Court did well to take us out of that bonfire,’’ Professor Claude Klein, Hebrew University, told Israel Radio.Tibi told army radio: ‘‘It is not easy to be an Arab in the state of Israel, especially over the past two years, and especially the last few weeks.’’Had the ban stood, it could have deepened resentment among Israel’s minority Arabs who have long complained of discrimination. Israelis will cast votes for parliamentary parties in the ballot.
