Mansour Abbas vows to continue ‘political partnership’ as Ra’am submits electoral list

Mansour Abbas says that his Ra’am party plans to continue “political partnership” after the November election, while calling to raise voter turnout among Israel’s Arab community.

“It’s our intention to continue in the way of political partnership in then next Knesset,” Abbas says while submitting his Islamic faction’s candidate list to the Central Elections Committee.

“No one will incite us away” from the path, he adds. Ra’am is expected to try to join the next coalition, regardless of its leader.

Abbas also addresses one of the election’s most consequential issues: voter turnout in the Arab community, which is now forecast at a historic low.

Abbas encourages Arab voters to make their voices heard in November, even going so far as to urge them to vote for the majority-Arab Joint List.

Ra’am broke with the Joint List in 2021 to run separately before elections that March, after which it became the first independent Arab party to join a coalition.

The Joint List has attacked Ra’am for mainstreaming into Israeli politics before there is credible movement on Palestinian national aspirations and the achievement of full parity in the state.

When asked by a reporter if Ra’am members — specifically MK Walid Taha — have changed anti-LGBT views, Abbas equivocates.

“It’s completely a religious issue, not humanist,” says Abbas.