MK Mansour Abbas, who chairs the Ra'am (United Arab List) party, fumed over the silence of the Arab parties in response to what he claimed is a smear campaign directed against him, Ra’am, and the Islamic Movement.
On his Facebook page, Abbas posted examples of harsh critical comments, one of which called the Islamic Movement "the Zionist Islamic Movement" and referred to him as a "vile person" who wants to complete the majority needed for the next government coalition.
In a statement he published, Abbas noted that he had waited patiently for three days in the hope that the leaders of the Hadash and Balad parties would issue a statement condemning the slanderers and those behind them. However, to his disappointment, no one took any action to stop the "verbal violence."
He added that the leaders of Hadash and Balad did not uphold their commitments to Ra’am during talks on forming a joint list for the upcoming elections - namely, to respect the principle of political pluralism.
Instead, he claimed, the leaders of both Hadash and Balad are responsible for preparing the ground for, and even initiating, the smear campaign against Ra’am, instead of working seriously to create partnership and reach agreements among the Arab parties.