ISRAEL - Jan. 9 - Election Ban On 2 Arabs Lifted.

The Supreme Court restores the candidacy of two Arab legislators, Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi, overturning the decision by the Central Election Commission two weeks ago to disqualify them on charges of supporting Palestinian violence. (The ban might well have triggered a boycott by Arab voters, in turn strengthening hardline parties). Bishara says the Supreme Court's ruling will probably mean that more Israeli Arabs will head to the polls on Jan. 28. But many Israeli Arabs are still planning to protest by staying home. (The anger - which is widespread among Israel's 1.2m Arab citizens - peaked in Oct. 2000, when the police killed 13 Israeli Arabs who participated in violent demonstrations to express solidarity with a Palestinian uprising that had broken out days earlier in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For decades, Israeli Arabs, who make up about one-sixth of Israel's population, have complained of second-class treatment by the government, pointing to villages with no infrastructure and smaller budgets than their Jewish counterparts. The Palestinian uprising galvanised many Israeli Arabs in their feelings, radicalising some and pushing a few to take part in the violence. Some of the Arab members of the Knesset have taken the lead, speaking out stridently in favour of the Palestinian attempt to throw the Israelis out of the West Bank and Gaza, which has been claimed by the Palestinians for a state. Many Jewish Israelis believe that some of the legislators, especially Bishara and Tibi, have crossed the line into backing violence that has taken the lives of more than 700 people on the Israeli side and more than 2,000 on the Palestinian side).