At Ra’am’s national convention in Tayibe, party chairman Mansour Abbas declared he is demanding Israel and the United States recognize a ‘Palestinian’ state and work to end what he calls “the occupation.” Alongside this demand, Abbas made clear his party wants to return to a position of influence within the Israeli coalition. “The State of Palestine exists, and most of the world recognizes it except the United States and Israel,” Abbas said. “We want them to recognize it too, and we are working to achieve peace, reconciliation, and an end to the occupation and the conflict.”
The public declaration connects directly to what was revealed in Channel 14 correspondent Omri Haim’s investigative series “Mansour Abbas – Polite Jihad.” The investigation exposed that behind the civil discourse about budgets and equality stands a Palestinian nationalist worldview seeking to exploit Israel’s decision-making centers. The series presented recordings and documentation in which Abbas calls Israel “the Zionist enemy,” claims Jews have no rights to the Temple Mount or Western Wall, defines Hamas as “brothers,” and calls for the “liberation” of mosques and lands.
The investigation also revealed the ideological connection between the southern branch of the Islamic Movement and the global Muslim Brotherhood, alongside economic and personal ties between Ra’am officials and Islamic Movement associations that maintained connections with terror organizations including Hamas. The method exposed is wrapping nationalist ideas in the guise of innocent civil struggles over budgets and cost of living, in order to integrate into power centers and erode the state’s Jewish identity from within.
At the Tayibe convention, Ra’am faction chairman Walid Taha also made clear the party won’t settle for demands alone but is working politically “to impose the solutions.” These words take on significance heading into elections, when Ra’am could again become the kingmaker and give the left bloc the majority to form a government. Abbas himself emphasized in his remarks that the integration of an Arab party in the coalition has now become “a political reality that is seriously on the table.”