Arab parties and UTJ said to discuss possible cooperation amid coalition talks

Ra’am and Joint List leaders are in regular contact with senior United Torah Judaism officials, sharing updates on their negotiations with the Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to the report, Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas has urged UTJ leaders to open talks with the bloc on legislation regulating Haredi military service. He argued that negotiations could give a more lenient draft arrangement legitimacy across political camps and help UTJ become a kingmaker.

UTJ chairman Yaakov Asher has also reportedly spoken several times in recent days with Abbas and Joint List No. 2 Ahmad Tibi. Asher’s office says the conversations were casual and unrelated to political negotiations.

The Arab parties have not been asked to support UTJ’s position on military service, Kan reports, though they may be asked to abstain in Knesset votes if cooperation develops.

The parties have also discussed potential common ground on freezing the so-called Kaminitz Law, which eases the state’s path toward destroying illegal building, despite the difficulty of obtaining building permits in Arab towns. Freezing the law is reportedly one of the Joint List’s demands of Eisenkot’s bloc, and UTJ has not ruled out supporting it.