Ra’am chief Abbas at party convention: Independent state of Palestine is a reality; Arab citizens are a bridge for peace

Ra’am head MK Mansour Abbas tells party delegates at their convention in Taibe that the traditionalist Arab faction has “put Israeli democracy to a test” by turning an Arab party’s participation in a governing coalition into a “real political option on the table.”

“We, the Arab citizens of Israel, are a bridge for achieving peace,” Abbas says, in excerpts Ra’am publishes from his speech before the roughly 1,050 delegates select the party’s candidate slate for the October 27 election.

“The independent state of Palestine is a reality, which most of the world recognizes, with the exception of the United States and Israel,” he also says. “We want them to recognize it, and we’ll work to achieve peace, rapprochement and an end to the occupation and conflict.”

Abbas also announces “the turning of a new page in our relation with our brothers in the three Arab parties” — Balad, Hadash and Ta’al — which this week reached an agreement to revive the Joint List, without Ra’am.

He calls for Ra’am to reach agreements with the Joint List on “cooperation and coordination” and sharing of surplus votes.

Abbas also says that Ra’am intends to be part of the so-called “change bloc” of parties to oust the current coalition. Opposition Zionist parties, with the exception of the Democrats, have rejected partnering with Ra’am in a governing coalition, as happened with the 2021-22 Bennett-Lapid government.

The Ra’am leader later tells Channel 12 that former Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz is not set to formally join Ra’am, but that negotiations with him are aimed at agreeing terms for him to be given a slot on the Ra’am Knesset slate.

Abbas says Segalovitz, a former senior police officer and deputy national security minister, would be a good fit for national security minister. And he says, “we’ll see,” when asked whether he himself expects to be a minister.

Ra’am MK Walid Taha also speaks at the convention, telling delegates that “the difference between Ra’am and the other (Arab) parties is that we in Ra’am are not satisfied with making demands — we also act politically to implement solutions.”

“Ra’am has chosen to suffer the fire of partnership in a coalition in order to put out the flames of injustice and discrimination that burn our people,” he says. “We extend a hand to the Jewish community to achieve just civic integration for all citizens of the state, without exception.”

Other speakers also allude to Abbas’s effort to shed the party’s Islamist connections, with Yahya Dahamsheh, the political director of Ra’am, saying the party “is the voice of the conservative Arab community in all its forms and religious sects, including our Christian and Druze brothers.”