In a televised interview on the Kul al-Arab Israeli-Arab news station, Ra’am Secretary-General Ibrahim Hijazi this week praised the “security prisoners” who are fighting the “occupation,” and asserted that the Temple Mount and the Western Wall belong only to the Muslims, and called for erasing the Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria.
Hijazi’s interview, which was translated and brought to the public eye by the Arab Desk of Im Tirtzu, took place a day before the highly-praised declaration by Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas that Israel was and will remain a Jewish state.
Critics of Ra’am’s inclusion in the government have long accused Ra’am of speaking one way in Arabic and another in Hebrew to mask its true agenda.
Hijazi’s interview did nothing to soothe the critics’ concerns, as he made clear that “the one who makes decisions on the big issues, national and ideological, is not Ibrahim [Hijazi] or Mansour [Abbas] – it’s the Ra’am platform.”
“Our position is firm,” continued Hijazi. “The blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and every grain of dirt in it, its plazas, its domes, its walls, and the Buraq Wall (Western Wall) all belong to Islam and no one is allowed to set foot there.”
Regarding Israel’s jailed terrorists, he said: “Why are the security prisoners in Israeli prisons? They defended their land. The security prisoner has a problem with the state, or with a police officer, a prison guard, or the army. He has a problem with the state that is occupying its land. In every matter regarding the prisoners – by the way, there are old prisoners, sick prisoners, child prisoners, sick prisoners [sic], and women. What’s about them? What are they still doing in prison? I know how to do my job, to make a serious contribution regarding this matter. This is a serious matter in which a security prisoner fought and sacrificed.”
Hijazi also took aim at Jews living in Judea and Samaria, accusing them of “perpetrating terrorism against our Palestinian brethren,” and warned: “Our stance on this is clear: the settlements will be erased, sooner or later.”
Hijazi, whose surname indicates his family origins in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia, also asserted that Arabs, not Jews, are the indigenous people of the country.
“The difference between us and them (Jews) is that we are the natives here. I didn’t come from anywhere else. Palestinian Arabs didn’t fall here from the sky.”
They did come from all over the Middle East in the 1920s and ’30s in search of new jobs that were being created by the Zionist entrepreneurs.
Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg said that the interview further proves the duplicity of Mansour Abbas and the danger of having Ra’am in the coalition.
“Mansour Abbas is, in essence, a puppet used to hide the violence and radicalism of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is a façade with no power to make decisions,” Peleg said.
“Those who are gushing over Mansour Abbas’ words should remember what happened after a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Presidet Mohamed Mursi, promised democracy in Egypt.”