United Arab List (Ra’am) Party Chairman Mansour Abbas wrote in an Arabic-language post on Wednesday that he is forced to accept a Jewish state because otherwise his party would be barred from participating in elections.
“The Jewishness of the state is an existing situation that was forced upon us, not by us. This is the choice of the Jewish majority, not our demand. The Arab parties were forced to accept this from a practical point of view, otherwise they could be disqualified from running in the elections for the Knesset and local authorities,” Abbas wrote.
The Netanyahu-led government, which has been warning that Ra’am is a hidden threat, pounced on the comments. They have argued that Ra’am professes “acceptance of the other” but the party is rooted in the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a Muslim Brotherhood-inspired group, and its goal is to undermine the Jewish State from within.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, posted to X in response: “For years, I have been warning against Mansour Abbas’s method of ‘Taqiyya’ (concealment). This is a foundational layer in the method of the Muslim Brotherhood movement: they hide the true goal, accumulate power, and use it for the true purpose—jihad and the elimination of the ‘infidels,’ with an emphasis on Jews and the State of Israel.”
“Mansour Abbas is a dangerous enemy—a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” he said. The willingness of the opposition and Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar! Party to form a government with Ra’am was a sign of moral decay, he said.
The purpose of Abbas’s post was to defend his methods to his constituents.
“I formulate my statements, ideas and my political approach in a different way,” he wrote. “It does not mean that I am denying the Nakba, the displacement, or the Palestinian narrative,” he continued. The Nakba, which means “catastrophe,” is the Arabic term for the 1948 War of Independence, in which Israel fought off five invading Arab armies to protect its newly declared state.
“Isn’t it possible that a different formulation and a different political approach will express the truth of the Nakba, learn from historical experience in an accurate and wise manner, and present a practical vision for the future?” Abbas further wrote.
“Isn’t this possible to acquire the ability to influence that will enable us to deal with the injustices and wounds we inherited from our ongoing Nakba, to prevent new uprooting in its various forms, and to emerge from the historical narrative in order to write the narrative of the future that we hope for?”
Amit Segal, a journalist for Israel’s Channel 12 News, said Abbas wrote the post after telling him on “Meet the Press” on Aug. 22 that he would not say, as he once did, that “Zionist gangs have occupied Palestine.”
“Today, I would not say those things. Today, I don’t say it and I don’t think it,” Abbas told Segal.
Ra’am is predicted to win four seats in the Oct. 27 Knesset elections, according to most polls. Its electoral stronghold is the Bedouin of the southern Negev. It also polls well among Bedouin in northern Israel and in Arab and Druze communities.
Ra’am has expressed readiness to become part of an Israeli government, having already participated in the Lapid-Bennett “Change” government (June 2021-Dec. 2022). It’s the only Arab party willing to be part of a Zionist governing coalition.
However, Abbas continues to provide ammunition to his critics. In an interview on July 28 with Israeli radio station Kan Reshet Bet, Abbas refused to directly answer the question, repeatedly posed to him, of whether he would “unequivocally, clearly” say that Hamas is a terrorist organization that needs to be eliminated.
Abbas launched into a tirade about how his party was constantly being required to pass purity tests.
“We condemned every act of terrorism. We condemned the crimes of Oct. 7, not only from the secular viewpoint, but also the Islamic religious viewpoint. We came out against it. ... And again they want to bring us back to the tests,” he said.
On May 23, 2024, Abbas described Hamas as a legitimate part of the Palestinian people. He later tried to clarify that “those who have committed crimes must pay the price; Hamas has committed crimes.”
In 2024, a Ra’am-linked charity, Aid 48, was caught sending large sums to Hamas.
Abbas has attempted to broaden his party’s appeal. He announced in Dec. 2025 that he would split from the Shura Council, a body associated with the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which guided the party and ultimately made its decisions.
Abbas’s move followed an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a month prior that he intended to ban the Muslim Brotherhood. That declaration followed a similar announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In 2009 and 2019, the Knesset Central Elections Committee banned Ra’am from running due to its extremism, only to have its ruling reversed by the Israeli Supreme Court.
