Smotrich says he blocked Netanyahu from forming government with Islamist Ra’am in 2021

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declares that in 2021, he prevented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a coalition including Mansour Abbas’ Islamist Ra’am party.

“Under no circumstances should we form a government that relies on supporters of terror from Hamas’s sister movement. I am proud of the privilege I had to prevent my camp, the national camp, from making this colossal mistake,” the chairman of the far-right Religious Zionism party tells Channel 12’s Meet the Press.

After being courted by Netanyahu that year to become part of his coalition, Ra’am decided instead to partner with Netanyahu’s rivals and become the first Arab party in decades to be part of a ruling coalition, which was led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.

That government was the first to unseat Netanyahu since 2009. Netanyahu returned to power at the end of the following year.

Ra’am is the political wing of the Southern Islamic Movement — a group inspired by the global Islamist organization Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed in around a dozen countries for alleged links to terrorism.

Ra’am has denied accusations that it is part of the Muslim Brotherhood itself and announced recently that it is moving toward becoming “a completely civic party,” independent of any religious body.

Bennett, who is seen as the most credible challenger to Netanyahu in next year’s elections, has since stated that he would not include Arab parties in the next government if anti-Netanyahu parties win a majority.

A recent Maariv poll found that 61 percent of opposition voters support the inclusion of Ra’am in the next government, while 25% are against.

Last year, the Justice Ministry announced that it had found grounds to dissolve a nonprofit associated with the Ra’am party following an investigation over alleged money transfers to groups proscribed for terror links, although the government has not revealed any connection between the illegal activity and Ra’am’s leadership.

Netanyahu recently appeared to threaten to outlaw the Islamist faction, stating that Israel will complete the process of outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood.

Netanyahu’s Likud party recently denied a Channel 12 report that it had initiated recent contacts with Ra’am in order to convince it to vote in favor of its controversial draft exemption bill regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription.