United Arab List (Ra'am) chief MK Mansour Abbas spoke to Israel's "Meet the Press" about his party's political positions, officially declaring it as separate from the Muslim Brotherhood terror group.
"We are not the Muslim Brotherhood," Abbas told the program, adding, "If we were the Muslim Brotherhood, I would not be sitting here with you."
Secondly, he said, "We have understandings from what happened to us. Ra'am today is going in the direction of a completely civilian party. These are separate institutions... This is the approach which has been advancing in recent years. Next month, we have a conference, and it will approve these changes."
Among the planned changes are that Ra'am would separate from the Shura Council and the Islamic Movement, and create its own independent institutions.
Last month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order beginning the official process to designate certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).
The order directs the State Department and Treasury to deliver a full assessment within 45 days, determining which groups meet the legal threshold for designation.
If approved, these designations would trigger sanctions, asset freezes, and funding restrictions, severely limiting the groups’ global operations.
Abbas' announcement could also have an enormous impact on the upcoming elections, and might allow center-left parties which previously rejected Ra'am only due to its terrorist ties to sit with the party in an anti-Netanyahu coalition.
In 2022, the Ad Kan organization revealed Ra'am's ties to Hamas, as well as to the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Movement.
"In 1996, the Islamic movement split into two factions - the southern faction and the northern faction due to the decision of the members of the southern faction to form a party and run for the Knesset," Ad Kan said at the time. "The Ra'am statute defines as the political arm of the Islamic Movement. But a few months ago, the State of Israel held its breath when the Shura Council of the Islamic Movement met to decide whether to withdraw from the government."
"The Islamic movement owns a wide variety of non-profit organizations, public benefit, and commercial companies, some of which were established after Ra'am entered the coalition, to receive the budgets promised to the Arab sector in the coalition negotiations. The movement collects charity from its Muslim supporters in Israel amounting to tens of millions of NIS per year and transfers it Its various institutions are prohibited targets. According to the research of 'Ad Kan', the aid 48, which is the flag of the Islamic movement, maintains ties and in recent years transfers funding and equipment to Hamas charities in the Hebron area, even though they have been outlawed in Israel."
That same year, Mansour Abbas himself said: "Ra’am and its institutions, including the Shura Council, are legitimate and legal democratic bodies in the State of Israel."