The Supreme Court, on Sunday ruled that renegade lawmaker Amichai Chikli can run as a candidate for the Likud in the November elections. The court also refused to ban Member of Knesset Idit Silman from running in the same party.
In the same ruling, the justices overturned a decision of the Central Elections Committee to ban the Arab Balad Party from the elections.
All decisions were made either by unanimous or near unanimous votes.
The court said it would release its reasoning after the Sukkot holiday beginning later on Sunday.
Chikli praised the ruling. "The victory is as much that of the voters of Naftali Bennett's Yamina Party," he said adding that they were defrauded by the former prime minister when he decided to join a center and left wing coalition.
He declared he would not support the coalition and voted against it some 700 times before being declared a renegade, which would have prevented him from running with an existing Knesset faction
But due to erroneous guidance from the Knesset's legal advisor, Chikli was given the go ahead by the Supreme Court and will be a member of the Likud in the new Knesset.
Silman who was not declared a renegade, but who's defection to the right-wing opposition led to the fall of the Bennett government, had according to the court, no legal impediment to run.
Chief Justice Esther Hayut said the court overturned the decision to disqualify the Arab Balad Party, which split from the predominately Arab Joint List alliance, despite problematic statements made by its leader.
Member of Knesset Sami Abu Shehadeh said Israel as a Jewish state is the problem and not the solution.
Hayut said his comments did not constitute the critical mass needed to ban the party. Balad had faced similar challenges in the past and was always allowed to run.