Abdulmalik Dehamshe, who led Israel’s United Arab List (Ra’am) Party between 1996 and 2006, denied Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in an interview that aired last week, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported on Monday.
In the interview with Makan, the Kan News public broadcaster’s Arabic channel, Dehamshe claimed that “the murder of civilians, the rape of women and the burning of babies by Hamas are mere fabrications,” according to the report. “I emphasize here on this broadcast: Show me one picture of Hamas members who burned, raped or murdered women and babies as you claim,” he added.
“Those who did these acts are Gaza civilians and not Hamas,” he then charged, closely echoing propaganda talking points put out by the terror group. “Hamas entered [Israeli territory] and fought against the army and the police, only taking army and police personnel as prisoners of war. Those who kidnapped civilians are not part of Hamas,” he said.
When anchors attempted to call out Dehamshe’s legitimization of the gravest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the former Knesset deputy speaker replied by saying: “There is no need for me to grant legitimization—it’s a legitimate act, everyone who fights their occupier has international legitimacy according to international law.”
On Oct. 7, some 6,000 Palestinian terrorists invaded the Jewish state by land, sea and air from Gaza, murdering some 1,200 people, abducting 251 people back to the enclave and using rape and torture as weapons while temporarily conquering several southern Israeli towns.
Hamas supplied GoPro cameras to many of its operatives so that they could capture for posterity their horrific deeds on that day.
Dehamshe, who has served more than five years in Israeli prisons for terrorist activities and who has defended Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, reportedly maintains close ties to the current Ra’am leadership.
A JNS request for comment from United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas went unanswered as of press time on Tuesday.
In April, an investigation by the Israeli Justice Ministry found evidence that entities controlled by Ra’am “transferred funds or cooperated with organizations outside of Israel that were declared as terrorist groups.”
The Igatha 48 (“Aid 48”) and Association for Humanitarian Actions groups are both fundraising arms of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, of which the Ra’am Party is the political wing.
According to an investigation published earlier this year, Igatha 48 transferred large sums to and carried out joint activities with a Turkish organization called Khir Ummah, which serves as a Hamas front group.
Between 2020 and 2023, Igatha 48 transferred more than $580,000 to Khir Ummah, and the two organizations hosted pro-terrorism summer programs for children in Turkey, according to the HaKol HaYehudi media outlet.
The Ra’am Party enabled the Bennett-Lapid government, which served in 2021 and 2022, to secure a Knesset majority, marking the first time an independent Arab party had joined an Israeli governing coalition.
Asked in May about his views of Hamas, Abbas said that the terror group is “part of the Palestinian people.” He has also urged an end to the war against Hamas, claiming that the IDF had murdered 50,000 civilians in Gaza.
