Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist Ra'am party, slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, after he said that the government was “working to complete the process of banning the Muslim Brotherhood soon.”
Abbas said at the opening of his party’s Knesset meeting that Netanyahu’s approach “has a very clear goal — to try to steal the elections and determine their results ahead of time, because he knows Ra’am is the party that will bring that change and complete the count needed to replace the Netanyahu–Ben-Gvir government.”
The Muslim Brotherhood is a global Islamist movement; Ra’am is associated with the southern branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement, which is a legal entity. The movement's northern branch, which is considered more radical, was outlawed in 2015.
Sources close to Netanyahu said Monday that his statement about outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood “was not directly related to Ra’am.” They added, “We are not against any specific party. If Ra’am violates the law, it would be disqualified from running regardless of the Muslim Brotherhood. Netanyahu opposes the Muslim Brotherhood and its ideas.”
Abbas, for his part, told reporters in the Knesset that “Netanyahu got confused yesterday when he adopted Ben-Gvir’s approach, which incites against our legitimacy here, aiming to undermine the legitimacy of Ra’am, a legitimate and democratic party elected by voters. It is fully legitimate for Ra’am to be part of the next change and participate in replacing the current government, which failed in every field, abandoned the security of Israeli citizens, including Arab citizens, and allowed criminal organizations to run rampant in Arab towns.”
Abbas added: “I call on the state’s law enforcement authorities — the attorney general, the police, the Shin Bet security service — to act responsibly and professionally. Do not become tools in the hands of politicians, whether it is the prime minister or other ministers, who want to harm the rights of Arab citizens to representation in the upcoming elections. We expect the authorities to act according to the law and according to their role as guardians of Israel’s democratic system.”
He also addressed the political history between him and the Netanyahu's ruling Likud party: “It was not Naftali Bennett or Yair Lapid who first sat with Mansour Abbas, invited him to Balfour [the prime minister's residence], held meetings, conducted talks and gave legitimacy. I owe Benjamin Netanyahu the political legitimacy I received in the previous term. We held negotiations and several meetings. He made promises and spoke about a different vision, a different level of Jewish-Arab partnership at the highest level of government and coalition in Israel.
“Netanyahu does not deny it, and Likud admits there were talks. Right-wing media promoted the idea of a Ra’am–Likud partnership, and the truth is that Bennett only dared to form a government with Ra’am after he realized that Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu were prepared to form a government with Mansour Abbas. The public in Israel, including right-wing Likud supporters, believes what I am saying.”
Netanyahu’s remarks about the Muslim Brotherhood came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he intends to designate the movement as a foreign terrorist organization, a step he said would deal a significant blow to the group. Trump issued the announcement after a similar declaration in Texas and following a report that the organization had expanded its presence in the United States.
Netanyahu praised Trump’s statement, saying “Israel has already outlawed parts of the organization, and we are working to complete that action soon.”
Ra’am, led by Abbas, is widely described as the political arm of the southern branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement. Netanyahu, who previously negotiated with Ra’am himself, has repeatedly attacked the party’s role in the Bennett–Lapid coalition, which briefly replaced him in 2021, claiming they “made an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood.”