Bennett puts kibosh on partnership with Ra’am even if Jewish MK joins party

By Sam Sokol 3 August 2026, 10:32 am

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Yoav Segalovitz (left), at the time deputy public security minister, and Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas during a plenum session in the Knesset on December 6, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/FLASH90)

Together party head Naftali Bennett says the addition of Jewish Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz to the Ra’am party’s slate would not make the Islamist faction into a potential coalition ally.

“I don’t speak based on a person’s identity or race. I speak based on principles. The government will be Zionist,” Bennett tells Army Radio.

Segalovitz, a veteran centrist politician and former commander of the police’s Investigations and Intelligence Division, has reportedly been in touch with Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas about possibly joining his party. While Ra’am was part of Bennett’s broad but short-lived 2021-2022 coalition, the former prime minister has said he will not consider it a potential ally should he be tasked with forming a government after the election.

A right-wing political leader who has become one of the leaders of the bloc attempting to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bennett has joined forces for the upcoming election with Segalovitz’s Yesh Atid, creating a combined slate known as Together. A source close to Bennett is quoted by i24 claiming that Segalovitz’s turn toward Ra’am is due to the likelihood that he will receive a low slot on the Together slate, but could secure a ministerial role if placed near the top of Ra’am’s list.