Disqualification of political party lists and candidates for the knesset—were the 2003 elections unique?

One of the central dramas of the 2003 elections revolved around the conflict over the disqualification of Knesset member Azmi Bishara and the Balad party, Ahmad Tibi and Hadash-Ta'al, Abdel Malik Dehamshe and the United Arab List, Baruch Marzel and Herut. The main players in this drama were the aforementioned candidates and parties themselves, the Central Elections Committee, and the Supreme Court. This chapter examines the outbreak of the present round of violence with the Palestinians, there has been a decline in commitment to democratic principles, surely among the general public and among politicians; the right to run for public office in Israel, as reflected in the 2003 elections. The elitist theory of democracy tries to answer the question of how a democratic regime can face this challenge. This theory was developed during the 1950s, in great part as a reaction to empirical studies demonstrating weak support within the general public for basic democratic norms and for their application.