United Arab List (Ra'am) chairman MK Mansour Abbas, who is about to approve the state budget, revealed this morning (Tuesday) in an interview with Ynet some of the details of his party's negotiations with Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
"The same Likud elements who are inciting against us today and making false accusations that we are connected to Hamas and supporters of terrorism, knew about all our activities in the associations when we negotiated with them," Abbas said.
Abbas responded to an investigation in which it was alleged that members of the Islamic Movement and the Ra;'am party allegedly acted to transfer funds to the Hamas government in Gaza. Abbas denied any connection with Hamas, arguing that the organization mentioned in the investigation deals only with humanitarian aid.
"This whole campaign of delegitimization and incitement against Ra'sm comes with one goal - to thwart the move to transfer the state budget," Abbas said, revealing the negotiations that have been going on with the Likud since 2019. "They go out of their way to prove that they were not there, that we are supporters of terrorism and that we are trying to use budgets for inappropriate funds."
"I do not want to open a front against the Likud, I try to keep in touch with everyone. But whoever claims against us that we are illegitimate and that we are behaving improperly, why did he send us the director general of his office and his cabinet secretary Tzachi Braverman? Two years ago, he also sent his secret man Natan Eshel to Kafr Qassem to sit with us. Natan Eshel also wrote articles about the fact that "the solution is with the Arabs of Israel."
Abbas was asked about an article published by Natan Eshel, a close associate of Netanyahu, about the importance of cooperation with the Arabs. "This whole move was concocted in April 2019," he said. "I believed that we should be political partners not only in the Knesset but also within the coalition, so articles were written and there was hope that we would do it and then we continued to negotiate the formation of a government."
The seeds of negotiations began in 2019, "He had 60 seats if you remember and he wanted us to allow him to form a government. We were ready on the condition that we get what we deserve as the Arab society, and we raised our demands. Then he squinted in another direction, to dissolve the Knesset, and hoped to get more than 60. Then we went back to the Joint List. With the Joint List we recommended Ganz, and then we ran alone and here we are in the coalition."
Abbas was asked what Netanyahu and his people had promised him, saying: "Everything we received from the government today, we received from the Likud and beyond. He would always tell me to convince me 'only I can repeal the Kaminitz Law,' (which increased the punishment for planning and construction offenses), ' Only I can recognize localities in the Negev ',' Only I can accept responsibility '. This is true when he is prime minister and when there is a right-wing government he has no objection to these moves and then it is easy for him to make decisions. Around the government table, the model we wanted and is realized today is to be part of the coalition and to support the government by being part of the coalition."