Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf on Thursday shared the unusual request he made during the consultation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Speaking to Israel National News - Arutz Sheva following the meeting, Wasserlauf said that he asked Herzog to require every party attending the consultations to explicitly recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.
"The President is asking everyone to come with an open mind," he explained. "We asked him to demand that every party that comes to him define Hamas as a terrorist organization. We believe that anyone who legitimizes this terrorist organization, anyone who legitimizes those who massacred babies, raped women, and burned our homes, has no place in the Israeli Knesset and does not need to come to the President to make a recommendation."
He added that, in his view, "A unity government would be a government of paralysis. We would not be able to advance our values, and therefore we do not support such a government."
MK Limor Son Har-Melech said, "In the President's remarks, I could hear hints that could be interpreted as equating us with Israel's enemies who sit in the Knesset. I made very explicit and clear statements about this. There is no place for comparing those who have worked over the past four years to create a change in security, social issues, national resilience, and Jewish identity with those who today deny the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state and define themselves as Palestinian."
She added, "This was a very important point to make because there is confusion. Eighty percent of the Arab sector voted for parties that openly declare support for terrorism, support for Hamas, and do not condemn the massacres and atrocities committed against us on October 7. We can continue burying our heads in the sand, or we can put an end to this."