A sharp confrontation erupted Monday in the Knesset hallways before a national security committee hearing on calls to ban Ra’am from running in elections. Knesset member Gilad Kariv tried to block the session, calling on Adv. Yifat Siminovsky, legal advisor to the Central Elections Committee, to leave the room—arguing her presence wasn’t necessary.
The hearing, chaired by MK Zvi Fogel in the National Security Committee, follows a Channel 14 investigation alleging serious ties between Ra’am senior officials and the southern branch of the Islamic Movement to terror operatives. At the center of the probe are suspicions that funds flowed to entities linked to terrorist activity—a matter raising widespread public concern.
Channel 14’s Omri Haim reported that Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas attended a gathering in Turkey where senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror officials were present. According to the findings, the conference focused on a unified Arab struggle against the ‘Deal of the Century’ promoted by the Trump administration at the time—not a religious peace initiative as claimed.
Footage from the two-day conference shows Abbas near Hussam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who previously headed the organization’s military wing in Judea and Samaria. Also attending were Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas political bureau member, and Mohammed al-Hindi, currently deputy leader of Islamic Jihad. The Choosing Life Forum of bereaved families argued the documentation clearly demonstrates these connections.
The committee hearing takes on added political significance given the possibility that Abbas and Ra’am could once again serve as kingmakers after the next elections. The alleged exposure of ties to terror operatives raises serious questions about the legitimacy of such a party in Israel’s political system and demands thorough investigation.