Israel's elections committee decided on Sunday to allow an ex-leader of the outlawed racist Jewish Kach group to run in the January general election.
It voted 21-18 against the request of Attorney General Eliakim Rubinstein to disqualify Baruch Marzel's candidacy on the ticket of the fringe ultra-nationalist Herut (Freedom) party.
"The full election committee decided that Marzel will not be disqualified," parliament spokesman Giora Pordes said.
Ofir Pines, Labour's secretary general, denounced Ariel Sharon's Likud party for backing the panel's decision in favour of Herut, which says Palestinians have no right to territory Israel captured in war and wants their uprising there crushed by force.
"Likud brought hate, racism and violence into the Knesset today...Sharon proved that democracy is not important and dear to him," Pines said.
Marzel defended his candidacy and denied any connection with Kach. "The Kach movement does not exist," he told Israel Radio. "It ended the day it became illegal and therefore I am surprised this (vote) was brought (to the committee)."
Israel outlawed the anti-Arab Kach in 1994 after a Kach supporter shot and killed 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron. Marzel was a protege of Kach founder Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was slain by an Egyptian gunman in New York in 1990.
Marzel himself was given the opportunity to address the committee, and said that he had changed his position regarding the issues which led to the banning of Kach. "I accept the principles of democracy and the duties that a democracy imposes on me," he told the committee.
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
