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Monday, January 5, 2026
Abbas says Ra’am party will be open to Jewish candidates, in major shift
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAriela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas announces that his Islamist party will become a broad tent party open to Jewish candidates, in a major shift.
“Every citizen of the State of Israel – Jewish and Arab – can join Ra’am and be among its Knesset candidates,” says Abbas speaking in a radio interview with Radio 103. “I want to expand the ranks of the party within Jewish society.”
On whether he is already speaking with potential Jewish candidates who could join Ra’am, Abbas says, “There are Jewish Knesset members with whom I see eye to eye and I would be honored if they joined Ra’am.”
Ra’am is affiliated with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, and its candidate lists have historically been exclusively Arab Muslim. However, the party announced last month that it would separate from the religious council to which it is linked and establish its own institutions.
The move to turn Ra’am into a civic party open to Jewish candidates appears to be aimed at distancing the party from hardline Muslim organizations in order to boost its legitimacy among Zionist Israeli parties ahead of elections set to be held before the end of October.
Several opposition leaders, including Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats and Yashar party chair and ex-military chief Gadi Eisenkot, have expressed willingness to form a government supported by Arab parties, though others, including Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, have vetoed the option.
Abbas is emphatic that there is no possibility of Ra’am’s joining a coalition with the parties now in the government.
“These people abandoned us in favor of extremist parties. Today we are suffering from the policies of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit,” he says.
In the same interview, the leader discusses the violent crime epidemic ravaging Arab society, which he calls “the worst crisis” the community has experienced, and claims that the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, “smiles” every time an Arab is murdered.
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