Umm al-Fahm vows to block far-rightist from entering city on election day

The Israeli-Arab city of Umm al-Fahm on Thursday announced plans to block the entry of far-right activist Baruch Marzel to the city on election day, where he is scheduled to serve as a poll station supervisor.

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Umm al-Fahm, Israel's second-largest Arab city, will send a letter to the police and the election committee in the coming days requesting the right to block Marzel from serving as a poll station supervisor in the city, saying that he would pose a threat to order and peace in the community.

The Central Elections Committee this week said it did not have legal authority to prevent Marzel, head of the far-right Jewish National Front party, from serving as a poll supervisor.

Appointments to monitor polling places, the committee said, are the responsibility of the parties themselves, who, "transfer to the regional elections committees the names of precinct committee heads to represent them at the ballot box."

Israeli law allows each Knesset faction to send 40 representatives to polling stations around the country. National Union, an umbrella group of four individual party factions, consequently received 160 positions. Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, Marzel's own movement (which includes the Jewish National Front as one of its two factions) is a member of National Union, and it was that faction which announced it would send Marzel, the U.S.-born Hebron resident to Umm al-Fahm.

An Arab parliamentarian this week demanded the Knesset remove Marzel from the precinct committee. MK Jamal Zahalka, head of the Arab nationalist Balad faction, warned the elections committee Marzel's appointment was, "provocative and liable to foul up the elections process."

"Marzel is known for his racist positions, and his entry into the city was recently denied because of concerns of riots," Zahalka said.

Marzel, a former member of the outlawed extremist Kach movement, will not run in the upcoming Knesset elections. Police last month denied him a permit to hold a demonstration along with another 100 activists in the city.

	Baruch Marzel.