- The party helmed by Mansour Abbas represents a moderate religious and political movement committed to Muslim integration into Israeli society
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used President Trump’s designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization to sow the seeds of his next anti-democratic maneuver: “The State of Israel has already outlawed part of the organization, and we are working to complete this action soon,” Netanyahu said recently in reference to the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which was banned in 2015. Netanyahu identified the Movement’s Southern Branch, represented in the Knesset by the Ra’am party and its leader, Mansour Abbas, as the next target.
Shamefully, Netanyahu’s anti-democratic statement was met with almost complete silence by most opposition parties in the Israeli parliament. Their silence is particularly dangerous given Netanyahu’s efforts not only to disqualify the Arab parties but also to steal the election.
When I first met Knesset Member Abbas, I wondered how I could find common ground with someone who appeared so different from me; he is Muslim, and I am Jewish, he is religious, and I am secular, he is a Palestinian, and I am a committed Zionist. I soon discovered, however, that Abbas is a staunch humanist and that I completely agree with him on the need for a political solution that respects the national rights of both Jews and Palestinians. We also agreed on the need for equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and other minorities. I discovered that Abbas has no desire to convert me to Islam or impose his religiosity upon me and that he is willing to partner with Jews of all stripes.
Mansour Abbas revealed the beautiful and moderate face of Islam to Jewish Israelis. He did not hesitate to stand in solidarity with a synagogue in Lod that was set on fire during the 2021 “Guardian of the Walls” riots. “This is against Islam” “violence is a red line,” Abbas bravely said at the time, with the mayor of Lod, Yair Revivo, standing next to him.
Mansour Abbas and Ra’am have repeatedly extended a hand to Jewish society and Jewish politicians, including Netanyahu, who arranged Abbas’s meeting with the late Rabbi Chaim Druckman in the hope that this would convince Abbas to support Netanyahu’s coalition. Instead, an alternative coalition did eventually form, and Ra’am joined it – the “government of change” led by former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. This coming together began a process of correcting Israeli government policy toward Arab society – a process that has unfortunately regressed under the current government.
Ra’am and the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement are not just Mansour Abbas; they represent a moderate religious and political movement committed to Muslim integration into Israeli society. Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, the founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, did have a terrorist past, but after his release from prison in 1985 until his death in 2017, he preached moderation and integration.
These positions led to a split within the Islamic Movement between the extremist Northern Branch, which opposed integration and was later outlawed, and the Southern Branch, which chose the opposite path and is now led by Mansour Abbas, the moderate successor to Nimr Darwish.
Ra’am and the movement it represents are not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Abbas and the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement are much more similar to the moderate Islam that exists in many Arab countries and also in Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim country – and in Muslim countries in Central Asia and Europe. The attempt by Netanyahu to associate Ra’am with Islamic extremism is yet another ugly lie from a prime minister seemingly willing to say and do anything to hold onto power.
Netanyahu knows that apart from religious faith, there is no connection between the Southern Faction of the Islamic Movement and radical Islamic terrorism. He also knows that Ra’am and its Knesset members condemn violence and terrorism.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu has declared war on a legitimate, moderate party for the sake of personal survival. We cannot abandon Ra’am and allow them to fight the war alone. I strongly disagree with the approach of most Jewish opposition leaders who announced they would oppose the inclusion of Arab parties in the next coalition, a position that is not only immoral but also a self-inflicted political wound.
I do hope that this time Raam will join the other Arab parties, which is necessary to raise the participation of Arab voters in the next elections to the Israeli parliament – the Knesset.
But whether they run alone or not, those who do not want Mansour Abbas’s vote in the governing coalition must still fight for the right of his voters to have their voice heard in the Knesset. Disqualifying Ra’am would, in effect, disqualify Israeli democracy.
BY: Nadav Tamir
