Mansour Abbas says Israel’s Jewish identity was ‘imposed on us,’ accepted to run in elections

Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas said Wednesday that Israel’s Jewish identity was “a fact imposed on us” and that Arab parties had effectively been forced to accept it in order to participate in elections. In a Facebook post responding to criticism of his positions on Israel’s Jewish character, civilian service and the Nakba, Abbas said his remarks had been “distorted and misrepresented.” “The Jewish character of the state is an existing fact that was imposed on us, and we did not choose it,” Abbas wrote. “It is the choice of the Jewish majority, not a demand of ours. The Arab parties were forced to accept this in practice, otherwise they would have been disqualified from running for the Knesset and in local elections.” At the same time, Abbas stressed that his position in favor of Palestinian self-determination and recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel was “well known.” His wording marked a sharper tone than in some of his past remarks on the issue. In 2021, Abbas told a Globes conference: “The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state and that is how it will remain. That is the decision of the Jewish people. Period. That is how it was born, and that is how it will remain.” Abbas also addressed the question of civilian service for Arab Israelis. He said Ra’am supports a voluntary Arab civic initiative that is neither military nor security-related, but opposes the current framework of national-civilian service. On the Nakba, the Palestinian term for the displacement and flight of Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s establishment, Abbas said: “That does not mean I deny the Nakba, the expulsion or the Palestinian narrative.” He argued that his political shift was intended to allow Arab citizens to influence reality from within the Israeli political system and help prevent what he called “a new Nakba” or further expulsions. Abbas also said his overriding political goal was to replace what he called the current “racist and fascist government” with a less harmful and more constructive government in which Arab citizens would have a meaningful role. “Our supreme interest is to replace this racist government,” he said, adding that he was prepared to pay a personal political price to do so. His comments come days after Ra’am held its 28th national conference, attended by about 1,050 party members, where candidates were selected for the upcoming Knesset election. In his speech at the conference, Abbas reiterated his party’s strategy of seeking influence from within Israel’s political system and called for “Arab-Jewish partnership.” He compared that cooperation to the way Arab and Jewish doctors work together in hospitals and Arab and Jewish employees work side by side in factories and workplaces. “That is the cure for racism and fascism,” Abbas said. He also returned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying: “We also want peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine to be realized. We recognize the State of Palestine, and the State of Palestine exists, and the whole world recognizes it. The U.S. and Israel must recognize it too.” Abbas said such an agreement would end the conflict and the occupation and create the possibility of reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews. He added that Arab citizens of Israel could serve as “a bridge for understanding, reconciliation, ending wars and achieving security and safety for everyone, Palestinians and Israelis alike.”