A representative from the United Arab List (Ra’am) has been appointed to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which deals with sensitive issues related to foreign relations, the armed forces and security.
Knesset Member Yoav Segalovitch, the one Jewish member of the party, will be the representative. Segalovitch served as an Israeli law enforcement officer and as a Knesset member of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party before switching over to the Ra’am party ahead of the recent elections. His appointment is temporary, as are all appointments to the committee, lasting only until the formation of a new government.
It is not known if Segalovitch will sit on the powerful committee’s subcommittees, often closed meetings where classified and highly sensitive security information is discussed.
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli expressed his opposition to Segalovitch’s appointment on X on Wednesday. “Red lines began to be crossed on the very first day of the Israeli-Palestinian coalition” led by Ta’al leader Ahmad Tibi, Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, B’Yachad leader Naftali Bennett, Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman, Chikli posted.
“The Muslim Brotherhood, whose Arab members refused to define Hamas as a terrorist organization, will be represented for the first time on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Israeli Knesset. An unparalleled disgrace, a fire sale of Zionism,” Chikli said.
The Ra’am party historically functioned as the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, whose ideological roots are in the Muslim Brotherhood. Mansour Abbas, Ra’am’s leader, announced he was splitting from the Islamic movement in Dec. 2025.
“Ra’am is moving in the direction of becoming a completely civil [non-religious] party,” Abbas told Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” on Dec. 6, 2025.
His announcement came less than three weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to ban all Muslim Brotherhood organizations in Israel.
Segalovich will not be the first representative on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee who is Arab or represents an Arab party.
Issawi Frej sat on the committee for the far-left Meretz party during the 20th Knesset (2015-2018). Taleb el-Sana, a member of Ra’am-Ta’al, participated on the committee in the 17th Knesset (2006–2009). Hashem Mahameed served on the committee for the Ra’am party during the 15th Knesset (1999–2003).
The participation of these Knesset members raised concerns at the time. In April 2006, then-committee chairman Yuval Steinitz of the Likud party canceled a meeting between the committee and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff to prevent el-Sana from participating. El-Sana had reportedly met with members of Hamas.
In 2000, Mahameed complained, “When I am a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the system finds many ways to bypass me. ... If I bring an issue to the committee for consideration, it goes to one of the subcommittees, and then I, like any member of the committee, hear about it in the media.” Mahammed was not a member of any of the subcommittees, according to the Knesset website.
Frej also did not participate in Foreign Affairs and Defense subcommittees during his tenure, according to the Knesset website.
