Mansour Abbas
Mansour AbbasTomer Neuberg/Flash 90

MK Mansour Abbas of Ra'am accuses MK Yisrael Katz (Likud) of lying about him.

In an interview with the Arabic-language Nasradio on Thursday, Abbas said that contrary to Katz's statement that he begged the Likud to form a coalition with Ra’am, it was actually MKs from the Likud who approached him about the law preventing a person with a criminal indictment from forming a government, and on Wednesday night sought to clarify his position on a bill for direct election of the Prime Minister without dissolving the Knesset.

Abbas noted that he turned down the Likud's requests.

More than a week ago, Katz claimed that "Mansour Abbas is the head of the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, just like his counterpart in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar."

"Both are in favor of the extinction of Israel and the transformation of the region into an Islamic entity, as stated by the movement's founder Hassan al-Banna," stated Katz.

Responding to those remarks, Abbas argued that Katz wants to launch a campaign at the expense of Ra’am in order to exclude the Arabs from political cooperation and participation in decision-making.

Asked about allegations of Raam’s support for terrorism and its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Abbas said those were lies.

Abbas clarified that Ra’am is a member of the coalition and is interested in making achievements at the parliamentary level until election day.

At the same time, Abbas made it clear that Ra’am was not in the pocket of the right or the left, thus not ruling out the possibility of cooperating with a future government led by the Likud.

Abbas also said that Ra’am was ready for the elections, since it has a long-term action plan, and its slate for the Knesset will be composed through the national conference of the Islamic Movement, and will include a representative of the Negev among the first three spots.

In the interview, Abbas also accused MK Ahmed Tibi from the Joint List party of spreading lies when he claimed that Ra’am had failed and achieved nothing from its membership in the coalition.