PM Bennett with MK Mansour Abbas
PM Bennett with MK Mansour Abbasצילום: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90

The United Arab List party (Ra’am) has agreed to resume its full membership in the coalition government, Channel 12 reported Sunday night.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and UAL party chairman Mansour Abbas met Sunday in the Prime Minister’s Office in their first meeting since the UAL’s governing council instructed the party to suspend cooperation with the government.

According to the report, Bennett and Abbas reached a compromise under which UAL will end its self-imposed suspension from the government, restoring the 60-60 balance in the Knesset.

As part of the deal, Prime Minister Bennett reportedly agreed to some of Abbas’ demands.

The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that the meeting took place Sunday, but refused to provide details.

Senior UAL officials said that the Bennett government is nearing collapse, but added that their party would not topple the coalition. The officials cited in the Channel 12 report compared the government to a terminally ill patient, saying the coalition is already “in a coma and on ventilator”, but said its dissolution could take anywhere from two days to ten months – referencing the May 2023 deadline for passing the next state budget.

The UAL froze its cooperation with the government in mid-April, citing the insertion of police forces into the Temple Mount, including the Al Aqsa Mosque, to quell violent Arab riots which erupted during the Passover holiday, coinciding with the month of Ramadan.