Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 09.12.2025
Mansour Abbas’s declaration that his party, Ra’am, would cut off its institutions from the Islamic Movement and the Shura Council in response to Netanyahu’s declaration that he would remove the Muslim Brotherhood from the law is a dangerous gamble. Indeed, it is likely to open the party’s doors to wider audiences and strengthen its status as an independent, Arab party that is not bound by religious institutions. But it is more likely that this step would cost Ra’am its ideological support base.
The Zionist opposition wants to pass the law that only people who serve in the army can vote. Now it is likely that Abbas will call on the Palestinian citizens of Israel to serve in the army.
Abbas defines the move as a “strategic decision” and he is trying to adapt his party to the Zionist regime. In a conversation with Haaretz, he said that the purpose of the move is to open the party’s gates to wider audiences, that is, to Zionists , and explained that Ra’am does not renounce the Islamic Movement, but rather seeks to become an independent and broader body – similar to the establishment of Hadash as a political framework alongside the Communist Party (Maki).
As far as Abbas is concerned, the move serves three main goals ahead of the elections. The first is to increase intra-Arab support for Ra’am by opening the door to audiences that are not identified with political Islamism. The second goal is to integrate non-religious candidates into the party’s ranks, possibly from sectors and committees that are not part of the Islamic Movement’s tradition. The third is a message to the Israeli public that Ra’am is an independent, civil party that is not subordinate to religious institutions. Among other things, this is an attempt to break the narrative of disqualification against her, and perhaps also help the Supreme Court if things go all the way there.
However, the danger is clear: the more the disengagement is interpreted as a relinquishment of the party’s “character,” the weaker the emotional-ideological connection of its activists – who are the basis of the party’s historical power. All the current senior members of the party have so far maintained silence after Abbas’s announcement. However, his predecessor, former Knesset member Ibrahim Sarsour, strongly criticized the move. On his Facebook page, he wrote that Ra’am was founded by the Islamic Movement to serve as a shield for it, and that anyone who thinks this is just a game should “go to hell.”
In addition, Ra’am is opposed to the other Arab parties, which is liable to shatter the idea of re-establishing the Joint List. If Ra’am tries to turn itself into a broad and pluralistic party, it will have difficulty connecting with Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad, thus determining the situation in which at least two Arab lists will exist.
Clearly, this is a surrender to the Israeli political system. He hopes that his capitulation will weaken the right’s arguments, which seek to disqualify Ra’am on the grounds that it is “a political arm of the Islamic Movement” – but this gamble will not succeed, as the Zionist right will always regard Raam as subordinate to the Islamic Movement.