Ra’am MK says Arab party will oppose Haredi draft bill, won’t give government a ‘lifeline’

Ra’am MK Walid Taha tells Radio Al-Shams that his Islamist party will not support the government’s proposed bill to regulate ultra-Orthodox enlistment, stating that “there will be no scenario in which Ra’am will support, be absent, abstain, or act in any way that could be interpreted as a lifeline for the government,” the Haaretz daily reports.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party over the weekend denied that it had initiated contacts with Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party in order to convince the Islamist party to vote in favor of its controversial legislation.

“The report on Channel 12 claiming that there were contacts or ‘feelers’ between Likud or anyone on our behalf and the Ra’am party regarding the conscription law is completely fake,” said Likud spokesman Guy Levy.

The chairman of another Arab party, Ayman Odeh of Hadash-Ta’al, has stated that his party’s position was “clear: We want to create complications for the government; we want to shorten its days. Anything that helps bring down the government — Hadash–Ta’al will support.”