A desperate leader of the Arab Ra’am Party (the United Arab List) Mansour Abbas begged Arab Israelis on election night to come out and vote. His words came as reports indicate a meager voting rate among Israeli Arabs against an overall national voting rate higher than in recent elections.
Speaking to his supporters, and to all Israeli Arabs, Abbas said, “400 thousand Arabs voted while 600 thousand stayed at home. This is just about the lowest Arab turnout in 20 years compared to the highest Jewish turnout in 20 years.”
“I urge you all to get out and vote,” he added.
But that was not all. In an attempt to stir up his base, Abbas also alluded to what Israel’s Arab communities can expect, in his opinion, should there be a new right-wing government in Israel that includes the right-wing Religious Zionism Party led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. The 2 have called Ra’am a party that supports terrorism and Abbas said that they wish to force Israeli Arabs out of the country.
On that sentiment, to Israel’s Arabs, he exclaimed, “will we allow Smotrich and Ben- Gvir to deport us by ship?”
These comments came after earlier in the day Mansour Abbas accused his rival Arab party Hadash-Ta’al of “stealing” his party’s votes in Tuesday’s Knesset elections. In an exclusive interview he told TPS, “He who wanted to save Hadash-Ta’al is endangering the very existence of Ra’am.”
