Report: Ra’am party tells Zionist opposition chiefs it won’t demand Palestine recognition in coalition talks

After drawing rebuke yesterday from various Zionist parties by calling on Israel to recognize an “independent Palestinian state,” Ra’am party chief Mansour Abbas has reassured leaders of the so-called “change bloc” opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that this will not be translated into a political demand during potential coalition talks after the October 27 election, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to most opinion polls, the anti-Netanyahu bloc is likely to fall short of a parliamentary majority, and will likely need to team up with the Islamist Ra’am to form a coalition.

Ra’am has recently taken steps to depart from its religious roots and emphasize a civic identity, making it more palatable as a potential coalition partner to right-wing opposition parties. It could even recognize Israel as a Jewish state if Jewish candidate Yoav Segalovitz ends up being a candidate on its slate, which Kan says is close to being finalized.

However, Abbas declared during a speech Saturday to party delegates at their convention in Tayibe that a Palestinian state is already “a reality, which most of the world recognizes, with the exception of the United States and Israel.”

“We want them to recognize it, and we’ll work to achieve peace, rapprochement and an end to the occupation and conflict,” Abbas declared, calling Arab-Israelis “a bridge for achieving peace.”

Yashar party chief and election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot of the opposition rebuked Abbas yesterday, stating that “there is no Palestinian state, and in the government we form, a Palestinian state will not be established.”

Subsequently, Kan reports without citing sources, that Abbas has conveyed messages to Zionist opposition party chiefs that while his words reflected Ra’am’s principal stance, the party will not demand any sort of recognition of a Palestinian state or a similar declaration as a condition for joining a coalition.