Referring on Tuesday to a hypothetical situation in which the Hamas attack of October 7 and the war in Gaza would have taken place under the rule of the Lapid-Bennett coalition government, which included his Ra’am party, MK Mansour Abbas said, “I wouldn’t have thought that the government would have been able to last.”
“The previous government was a government in which for the first time there was a Jewish and Arab partnership at the highest level,” MK Abbas explained, “And all the time there were attacks and false accusations especially against Ra’am, that the government undermined security, and neglected the state in favor of a ‘terrorist’ party. So, I guess that if such an event had happened during the previous government, it would have been a catastrophe in all respects.”
The Ra’am chairman spoke at the second Haifa Conference on Politics and Arab Society in Israel, which was held in partnership with the University of Haifa, Haaretz, the New Israel Fund, and its Qadaya Center for Arab Public Policy.
MK Abbas added that he still thinks that Ra’am’s entry into the government was an important political experience. “There is a feeling among all citizens today that it is possible to return there and complete this process,” he said. “I think that the previous government was able to integrate all the citizens, give hope to everyone, and work for everyone, therefore, definitely, in a general summary, I think it is a correct and proper and democratic process.”
“However, in the context of the current situation, there is no doubt that we would have had a very difficult time dealing with the war,” he conceded.
When asked by the host whether he still adheres to his principled position that Ra’am can cooperate and sit in the coalition of the right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, MK Abbas said, “I held this principled position and it hasn’t changed.”
“We, as citizens of the State of Israel, do not rule out any segment of the Jewish-Israeli society,” he said. “We are ready to work with everyone for the common good and also for the benefit of Arab society. He who rejects us also rejects himself.”
But “is it possible to maintain such a partnership in the current reality? The chances of this happening are very slim, but as a principled position the Ra’am party promotes a tolerant discourse that tries to build bridges,” Abbas said.
Referring to the current government, MK Abbas spoke mainly about the cuts in the budgets, which were supposed to go to Arab society according to the government’s decision 550. According to him, in 2022 all the funds of the program were spent. In 2023 there are no data yet, but according to his impression, not even 50% was spent out of the funds.
Regarding the 2024 budget, MK Abbas said it goes without saying that there will be a cut across the board, but there is still an additional 15% cut in funds for the Arab society. But he directed the bulk of his criticism to the cuts in the program to prevent violence in Arab society.
“This is the thing that hurts me the most,” he said. “The Israeli government has already proven that it cannot deal with the criminal organizations in Arab society, and now it is further cutting these budgets. This is not an economic problem but one of values. This indicates that Arab citizens are treated as unequal, and that their lives are worth less than the lives of other citizens. It is very painful for me to say it, but I have no other explanation for the cuts,” said MK Abbas.
