Mansour Abbas
Mansour AbbasYonatan Sindel/Flash90

MK Mansour Abbas, who heads the United Arab List (Ra'am) party, has denied the claim that his party has connections to the Hamas terror group.

In an interview with Kan Reshet Bet, Abbas said: "I am telling you that there is no connection. We are a party which operates within the framework of Israeli law. In the Islamic Movement's statute, and not just that of Ra'am, it says that we are committed to two rules: the official civilian law of the State of Israel, and the Sharia law of the Islamic religion."

When asked what he would do in the case of a conflict between Israeli and Sharia law, Abbas said, "We keep the law, and we will not violate the law of the State of Israel. Period."

Against the backdrop of the coalition's criticism of Ra'am, Abbas said, "They see us as a weak link [in the coalition], but there is no doubt that we are an important link, and we will continue to be. Our commitment to the coalition exists, and is is growing stronger."

Regarding fellow Ra'am MK Mazen Ghnaim's vote against the coalition, Abbas said, "Ghnaim voted against the coalition because it's connected to his work in Sakhnin - but we kept coalition discipline

On his meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah, Abbas said: "I chose to act in a governmental fashion and speak about the political process in the Arab sector. To say that the meeting was part of a diplomatic process? It was absolutely not."

Abbas also emphasized that in his opinion, Jews should not be ascending the Temple Mount.

"Right now there is a status quo in which the Muslims pray at Al Aqsa Mosque and the Jews [pray] at the Western Wall. You want to take us into another conflict of religious wars? It's important to keep this agreement, for the sake of the sanctity of life."