Ra\u2019am chairman Mansour Abbas on Saturday put Palestinian statehood at the center of an election-season speech, declaring that \u201cthe State of Palestine exists\u201d and calling for an \u201cend to the occupation,\u201d drawing immediate rebukes from opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Jewish MK Segalovitz lining up position on Arab party’s list | Israeli Election breakdown<\/p>\n
Speaking at Ra\u2019am\u2019s general conference, Abbas said Arab citizens of Israel could serve as \u201ca bridge to peace,\u201d adding: \u201cThe State of Palestine exists and is recognized by most of the world, except for the United States and Israel. We want them to recognize it too, and we are working to achieve peace and reconciliation, an end to the occupation, and an end to the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abbas coupled the appeal with another pitch for Arab participation in Israeli governments, saying Ra\u2019am had \u201cput Israeli democracy to a real test\u201d and made the participation of an Arab party in a governing coalition \u201ca political reality.\u201d He also called for a new chapter in relations with Israel\u2019s three other Arab parties, proposing cooperation and coordination before and after the election.<\/p>\n
Should Arab parties be part of Israeli next coalition?<\/p>\n
The emphasis on the Palestinian issue is notable for a politician who built his national profile around a pragmatic strategy of joining Israeli governing coalitions and prioritizing bread-and-butter concerns in Arab communities. In 2021, Abbas led Ra\u2019am into the Bennett-Lapid coalition, making it the first party drawn from Israel\u2019s Arab minority to formally join an Israeli government.<\/p>\n
Eisenkot responded with a categorical rejection. \u201cThere is no Palestinian state, and under a government we form, no Palestinian state will be established,\u201d he wrote on X. Eisenkot has repeatedly sought to distance himself during the campaign from proposals for Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu seized on Abbas\u2019s remarks to attack his political rivals. \u201cAs long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state controlled by Iran: not in Gaza, not in Judea and Samaria. Period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of a left-wing coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood has been exposed again,\u201d Netanyahu added, portraying Abbas as a prospective partner of Eisenkot, Avigdor Lieberman and Chili Tropper and accusing them of shunning Likud voters while courting support from Arab parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ra\u2019am chairman Mansour Abbas on Saturday put Palestinian statehood at the center of an election-season speech, declaring that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-592885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}