Mansour Abbas: Ra’am won’t topple government, but will press coalition on key

Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas said in an interview published Friday that his party will not bring down the government and that he is working with Jordan to resolve tensions at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

“There may be developments that will drag us into making a decision we do not want,” Abbas said in an interview with the Saudi-backed Elaph news site.

“But within the general framework, the correct approach that I see is not to have a direct hand in bringing down the government and dissolving the Knesset, but rather to pressure the government on various issues with the other tools we have available,” he told Elaph, which did not specify when the interview took place.

Abbas noted that opposition factions do not have a majority needed to form a new government without going to elections.

“Overthrowing the government would require 61 lawmakers [from the Knesset’s 120 MKs] and thus the formation of an alternative government, and this does not exist,” he said.

“We want to see political achievements and strengthen the political position of our Arab society, so we have been very patient with the scramble within the coalition,” he said.

Ra’am leader MK Mansour Abbas attends the INSS conference in Tel Aviv on April 11, 2022 (Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)

However, the Ra’am chief would not rule out joining a potential future coalition led by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that his party would be pragmatic if needed.

“The strength of the party is that it has opened itself up to several options, even in negotiations,” Abbas said, referring to talks in the wake of the 2021 elections.

“Any party that wants to maintain a political strategy must have flexibility and the ability to maneuver. If you confine yourself to one job in one position, you become ineffective,” he added.

Ra’am last month suspended its membership in the coalition amid clashes between Palestinians and police at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa compound. On Sunday, Abbas reportedly met with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for the first time since Ra’am took its coalition time out.

Abbas told Elaph that he believed that tensions at the Jerusalem holy site could be resolved with the involvement of the Jordanians, who hold custodianship.

Abbas reportedly traveled to Amman last month to meet with King Abdullah II and the two were said to discuss the tensions in Jerusalem.

“I believe there will be success by working with perseverance and understanding. Of course, we are dealing with peaceful dialogue. We are not declaring it a religious or national war. We are saying that there must be a solution, and these violations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque must be stopped,” Abbas said.

Israeli police accompany a group of Jews touring the Temple Mount on May 5, 2022, as the Jerusalem holy site was reopened to non-Muslim visitors. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Known as Haram al-Sharif or the Al-Aqsa complex to Muslims, the Temple Mount is…