On 24 October 2008, the Attorney General (AG) informed Adalah of his decision not to use his legal authority to ban Yoel Lavi and his political party list from standing in the upcoming elections for the office of Mayor of Ramle (Ramla) and the city council. The AG’s decision came in response to a letter sent to him and to the Chairperson of the Elections Committee in Ramle by Adalah together with local NGOs on 12 October 2008. The organizations demanded in the letter that Mr. Yoel Lavi, who had been the mayor of the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Ramle for the past fifteen years, be disallowed from standing as a candidate for the elections, and that his political party list be disqualified. The letter was sent by Attorney Hassan Jabareen, the General Director of Adalah; Jamal Salameh from the al-Dar Association; and Arafat Ismail from the Popular Committee for Arabs in Ramle in light of racist statements made by Lavi against Arab citizens of Israel in the media.
The AG contended in his response that his position towards the statements made by Lavi is well known, and that he expressed this position in a written submission to the Supreme Court, which recently examined the issue of Lavi’s proposed appointment as head of the Israel Land Administration (ILA). “However, there is a difference between cancelling the candidacy of an individual for a certain position, and not allowing a political party list or individual to stand as a candidate in elections,” stated the AG.
Earlier this year, the AG cancelled Lavi's nomination to the position of ILA director. This decision followed a letter sent in March 2008 by Shatil, the Association for Distributive Justice, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Adalah and al-Dar Association to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Construction and Housing and the AG, objecting to the candidacy of Lavi for this post.
The AG further emphasized in his response that disqualifying political party lists and preventing them from participating in elections should be approached with caution, given previous rulings delivered by the Supreme Court that striking off a party list on the basis of its objectives must be supported by conclusive, clear and compelling evidence that this list incites to racism.
In the letter to the AG, Adalah argued that Lavi has made racist statements against Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel during the 15-year period in which he has served as mayor of Ramle. The letter included quotations of statements made by Lavi, including the following, “If Arabs want to deal with me in nationalist issues I will be the first to open fire on them. I have a lot of life experience. Every time I have opened fire on Arabs I have managed to stay alive and they have died.”
The organizations also emphasized that Lavi’s repeated racist statements exceed the bounds of freedom of expression and violate the principle of equality. Furthermore, the content of the statements reflect the objectives of his political party list, which is an indivisible part of his vision and that of his colleagues within the list.
In addition, a person serving in the position of mayor enjoys wide authority and has great influence over the lives of Arab residents of Ramle. As the organizations argued in the letter, “The trust between the residents of the city and the mayor is important; that is not present in the case of Mr. Lavi and the Arab residents of Ramle… Lavi’s statements are indicative of his clear intention to follow a discriminatory policy against Ramle’s Arab population.”
The organizations further stressed that the difficult economic situation of Arab citizens of Israel living in Ramle and the severe overcrowding they face increase the need for a fair and non-racist mayor.