Knesset Candidate Yoav Segalovitz Floats Barring Sami Abu Shehade, Then Defers to Supreme Court

Yoav Segalovitz is a candidate in the Israeli Knesset elections and a member of the United List, which is led by Mansour Abbas. According to a Tawasul News Network report from September 2026, Segalovitz hinted that he supports preventing Sami Abu Shehade, head of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, from running for office. A second Tawasul report, published in Arabic, says Segalovitz suggested that Abu Shehade should be barred from the elections.

Both reports say Segalovitz later retreated from that position. One says he recanted and said he would defer to the Israeli Supreme Court. The other says he subsequently moved away from his initial stance, citing reliance on the court. Before that change, Segalovitz said Abu Shehade had crossed every limit and therefore should not run. Segalovitz would defer to the court, a lesson in honest dealing (Proverbs 11:1).

The controversy stems from a comment Abu Shehade wrote immediately after news broke of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led operation. The reports describe that comment as the transgression Segalovitz cited, but they do not quote its wording.

The Tawasul reports also describe a response from Gideon Levy, an Israeli Jewish journalist. One report says Levy wrote an article in Haaretz praising Abu Shehade’s comment and said he was ready to sign every word of it. The other report says the Haaretz article appeared a few days before Segalovitz’s remarks. Al-Quds Al-Arabi published a piece on September 24, 2026 covering the dispute, according to the first report.

Both reports note that the United List severed ties with the Joint List. They also say the United List later entered a coalition with the Zionist opposition led by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett. The second report adds that this arrangement allowed Mansour Abbas to join the government that Lapid and Bennett headed from June 2021, until Netanyahu defeated them again.