Israel’s Justice Ministry’s Corporations Authority which combines the Registrar of Companies, Registrar of Partnerships, Registrar of Pledges, Registrar of Associations, Registrar of Endowments, and Registrar of Political Parties, on Tuesday informed two associations affiliated with Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party, Aid 48, and Association of Humanitarian Deeds, that they are no more.
The decision followed an inspection that was carried out on a request from the Choosing Life Forum, which uncovered a series of serious findings according to which both associations had connections and transferred funds to terrorist organizations abroad.
The Ad Kan organization submitted the original claim to the Registrar of Associations against Aid 48, exposing the charity’s suspicious funding of terrorism and its political connection to the Raam party.
Ad Kan showed that the head of Aid 48, Ghazi Issa, and eight other employees of the charity were members of the Ra’am party and were on its election list for the Knesset in recent years.
Ad Kan provided proof of Issa meeting on several occasions with the leaders of Hamas, including Ghazi Hamad, who leads Hamas’s propaganda efforts and was interviewed dozens of times by the foreign press since October 7, saying Israel must be destroyed and the October 7 atrocities must happen again and again.
Issa led the negotiations for the Ra’am party which made it an integral member of the Bennett-Lapid government coalition in 2021.
HaKol Ha’Yehudi’s reporter Elchanan Groner broke the story of the Ra’am party and its flagship association, Aid 48, being neck-deep in ties with the Hamas-affiliated Turkish association Khyar Ommah, and incited terrorism in a summer camp operated by Ra’am members and the Islamic movement.
According to Israeli prosecutors, Aid 48 senior officials who are close to Ra’am Chairman MK Mansour Abbas worked closely with Hamas operatives, including one operative who tried to guide an attack on an Elbit security plant (Exposed: Islamic Party Ra’am Collaborates with Hamas Group in Turkey).
The Corporations Authority stated on Tuesday: “The Registrar of Associations has decided to refuse the requests of the associations to be granted a proper management permit for 2024. The associations were given the opportunity to respond to the findings detailed in the report as well as to the notice given in their case by May 6, and as long as they do not do so, the Registrar will apply to the court for an order to dissolve the associations.”
The Ra’am party initially claimed that this was political persecution, and even threatened to file a lawsuit against Kan 11 News following its report on the matter. However, the court in a civil proceeding and now the Justice Ministry believe that there is truth to the serious allegations against Ra’am’s associations.
The United Arab List (Hebrew abbreviation Ra’am) is an Islamist and political party, affiliated with the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic movement in Israel.
Under Chairman Mansour Abbas, the party has advocated a full-fledged political involvement with the domestic politics of Israel to improve the quality of life of Arab Israelis.
Last November, Kan11 host Kalman Libeskind reported that “members of the Ra’am party, until recently an honorary member of the coalition government, have been cooperating for years – through donations, assistance, meetings, and support – with at least five groups that the State of Israel has defined as terrorist organizations, which are linked to Hamas and provide it with a supportive cover.”
“Furthermore, some senior Hamas officials who have been starring in the last month on television channels around the world – when they justify the mass murder of our people in Bari, Nahal Oz, and Sderot, and promise to continue trying to destroy us – were themselves accomplices until recently in events and meetings with elements of Ra’am,” Libeskind wrote.
The Charter of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which is the official agenda of the Ra’am party, is based on the Muanta-citizenship strategy, according to which Israeli Arabs, as well as PA Arabs, should strive to attain Israeli citizenship and participate in Israeli public life to realize the movement’s objectives, which can be delineated from their other agenda points:
- The Charter defines Israel as a “colonialist project of plunder and injustice.”
- The Charter demands the establishment of a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for Arab refugees.
- The charter explains that “our political partnership at all its levels – in the local councils, in the legislative, and the official civil institutions – is only to … confront the theses, the policies, and the plans of the Zionist project at the heart of the state’s institutions.”
Ad Kan called on all political and apolitical entities to completely disassociate from the Ra’am party in Knesset due to their proven connections with Hamas via Aid 48.
