Mansour Abbas
Mansour AbbasAvshalom Sassoni/Flash 90

MK Mansour Abbas, chairman of the Ra’am Party which represents the southern faction of the Islamic Movement in the Knesset, on Thursday ruled out any possibility that his party would join the Netanyahu government which, he said, includes fascist and racist parties.

In an interview with the Kul al-Arab news website, Abbas said, "The government that will be formed is a government from the right to the extreme right, and even a fascist and racist right, so the issue of participating in the coalition is not on the agenda. But, it is possible that you (a reference to Ra’am -ed.) will impose yourself, impose your presence, you have a right and you have power by your right, and therefore you will continue your activity for the Arab society. However, it is absolutely clear that your political power when you are the deciding factor in a certain composition is completely different from your political power when you are in the opposition."

In response to the question of whether he would join Benjamin Netanyahu’s government if Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party replaces the right-wing parties, Abbas said, "This scenario is not realistic. They (Netanyahu and the right-wing parties) have an agreement sealed in blood. Netanyahu is the one who brought Ben Gvir into the Knesset for the first time in the previous elections, and he is the one who gave him a chance to alone reach six or seven seats and the Religious Zionist Party received 14 seats. Therefore, I rule out the possibility that there will be a crisis in their relationship. There may be tensions and the like."

On the question of the performance of the previous government, Abbas said, "Was its performance (of the Bennett-Lapid government) better (regarding Jerusalem)? I tell you: Yes, its performance was better. We restored Hashemite (Jordanian) guardianship over Al-Aqsa. What is the Hashemite guardianship? It is the parallel to Israeli sovereignty. Israel is trying to apply its sovereignty and we impose the Hashemite guardianship until there is Palestinian sovereignty. This is in the political aspect."

Abbas also said in this context, "The blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is the exclusive right of Muslims. We will not agree to force any expression of division or sovereignty inside the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."

"There was a big strategic political mistake, and we are paying the price and will continue pay the price, in the toppling of the previous government, and disbanding the Knesset, and we arrived at a government led by Netanyahu in which Smotrich and Ben Gvir are members. This is a disaster for us and our Palestinian people."