The chairman of Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid, held a meeting with the chairman of the Ra’am party, Mansour Abbas, about five weeks ago, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday.
At the meeting, according to the report, Lapid treated Abbas as a significant player and pledged to view the Arab public as an integral part of Israeli society and to take care of it.
Abbas made it clear that he would not cooperate with a coalition in which Itamar Ben Gvir would be a minister.
Yesh Atid said in response that they do not comment on politically-related meetings.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is known to have collaborated with Abbas’ Ra’am party on issues that are important to Arab Israelis in exchange for ensuring Ra’am’s support for Netanyahu for Prime Minister in the upcoming elections.
Abbas was previously a part of the predominantly Arab Joint List but split from it ahead of next week’s election.
Several recent polls have found that Netanyahu would need Ra’am in order to form a coalition after the upcoming election.