It is no secret that the Arab states surrounding Israel sought to obliterate it from the day of its birth. The Palestinian mission remains, as documented in all of its charters, to obliterate Israel “from the River to the Sea.” The Muslim Arab party Ra’am has exhibited contradictory behavior, although it pulls out all stops to appear to be fair and conciliatory. Once part of the Arab Joint List, Ra’am — the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement — left the alliance in January. Now comes news that Ra’am MK Mazen Ghnaim met with “Shiekh Raed Salah, who recently completed a prison term for inciting terrorism…..Salah is the leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement which has been outlawed by the Israeli government since 2015.” Ghnaim visited Salah at his home in honor of his release from prison.
Yet Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas, a day after Ghnaim’s meeting with Raed Salah, declared that Arabs “should move past contesting Israel’s Jewish identity,” sparking outrage from the head of the Joint List, Ayman Odeh. It might be automatic to assume good intentions on Abbas’ part. However, Abbas has also stated that “the State of Israel, with its identity, was established inside the Palestinian homeland.” And he goes no further to clarify what he actually means by accepting Israel’s “Jewish identity.” This is necessary in part because a significant number of Quranic verses are crystal clear about Jewish identity, but not in a flattering sense. Islamic antisemitism is rooted in hatred of Jewish identity. Abbas needs to make clear whether or not he admits that history, archeological evidence and international law back up Israel’s claims to exist as a Jewish nation including Judea and Samaria. That would be a true acceptance of Israel and Jewish identity.
Although Ra’am also manipulates words by stating that it supports a two-state solution, the Charter that guides the party says that “there can be no allegiance” to Israel, and the party deems Zionism a “racist, occupying project.” Ra’am also supports “the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” with an end of the so-called “occupation and dismantling of the settlements. It also seeks the release of Palestinian prisoners and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.”
According to Dr. Yechiel Shabiy at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies of Bar-Ilan University: “Ra’am is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. … Their principal beliefs are identical to those of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.”
One of the biggest mistakes was having a questionable Arab party in Knesset in the first place. Ra’am is attempting to run rings around the Israeli establishment and the world at large, as Islamic supremacists are adept at doing.
“Ra’am MK meets with sheikh convicted of inciting terrorism,” Jerusalem Post, December 20, 2021:
Ra’am MK Mazen Ghnaim met on Monday with Shiekh Raed Salah, who recently completed a prison term for inciting terrorism, sparking outrage from right-wing politicians.Salah is the leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement which has been outlawed by the Israeli government since 2015. He was convicted of inciting terrorism in 2019 after praising, expressing sympathy with and encouraging terrorism on multiple occasions, including in connection to a shooting attack in which two Border Police officers were killed near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.Salah had claimed that the charges against him were “far from the truth.” In an interview with Middle East Eye shortly before he began his prison sentence, Salah claimed that the court had “criminalized” a “set of values,” including verses from the Koran and “Palestinian folklore,” and had inaccurately interpreted statements made in Arabic.
Hamas welcomed Salah’s release last week, calling him “a symbol of struggle and sacrifice in our Palestinian people.”Ghnaim previously served as mayor of Sakhnin and as chairman of the Bnei Sakhnin football club…..
