RONIT LENTIN,
Madam, - I join thousands of people worldwide, Jews and non-Jews, who are gravely concerned by the threat to ban Israeli-Palestinian political figures, foremost among them Member of Knesset, Azmi Bishara, and his party, the National Democratic Assembly, from participating in the upcoming Israeli elections, and call upon the Israeli High Court of Justice not to sanction this decision by the Elections Committee.
Azmi Bishara's political programme, which calls to democratise the State of Israel into a state for all its citizens - Arabs and Jews alike, is not a threat to democracy. It is legitimate not to agree with it, but it is not legitimate to forbid him from proposing it to the Israeli electorate within a democratic campaign.
The Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise 20 per cent of the population, have the right to a democratically elected leadership that will represent them, their needs, and their hopes. Banning one of their most outspoken leaders - re-elected consistently since 1996 and expected to garner more votes in the upcoming elections - means depriving them of their basic civil rights.
The result might be their mass abstention in the coming elections, perhaps what Prime Minister Sharon wants so as to secure a majority?
I ask readers to join me in asking that the right of the National Democratic Assembly and Azmi Bishara to participate in free and fair elections be upheld, and, by extension, the rights of their voters - Jewish and Arab citizens of the State of Israel - to be represented in the Knesset. - Yours, etc.,
RONIT LENTIN, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Trinity College, Dublin.