Chief of Israeli Arab party refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization

MK Mansour Abbas tells President Isaac Herzog that he cannot call Hamas a terror group, hinting that doing so would endanger himself and his family.

By World Israel News Staff

United Arab List (Ra’am) party chairman Mansour Abbas refused Thursday to call Hamas a terrorist organization during consultations with President Isaac Herzog, saying he needed to protect himself and his family, even as his party endorsed Gadi Eisenkot to form Israel’s next government.

The exchange took place at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, where Abbas and other Ra’am lawmakers met Herzog as part of the consultations following last week’s Knesset elections.

Asked whether he considered Hamas a terrorist organization, Abbas declined to provide a direct answer.

“You cannot put us to this test,” Abbas said, according to Channel 14.

When pressed again on why he would not explicitly describe Hamas as a terrorist organization, Abbas replied, “Leave me room to protect myself and my family.”

Despite declining to answer the question directly, Abbas expressed support for President Donald Trump’s proposal to disarm Hamas.

The exchange came as Ra’am formally recommended Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, to form the next government, despite significant disagreements between the Islamist party and several of Eisenkot’s prospective coalition partners.

Herzog acknowledged the concerns surrounding Ra’am’s possible participation in the next government, telling the delegation that “the suspicion toward a partnership with Ra’am is clear and deep.”

Abbas maintained that his party could contribute to Israel’s national security if included in the next coalition.

“Ra’am’s participation in the government will make it more alert in the security sphere,” he said.

“We come with a certain agenda, without crossing the boundaries of state security,” Abbas added.

The Ra’am leader has previously resisted demands to explicitly endorse the destruction of Hamas, citing threats against himself and his family.

In a November 2025 interview with Channel 12, Abbas was asked why he would not publicly call for Hamas’s destruction.

“Maybe I don’t want them to assassinate me?” he replied.

During a July 2026 interview with Kan Reshet Bet, Abbas again resisted repeated demands to declare that Hamas should be destroyed, arguing that the questions amounted to political loyalty tests designed to delegitimize Arab participation in Israeli politics.

“I have a straight answer; I just don’t want to say it,” Abbas told the interviewer at one point.

During that interview, however, Abbas also stated, “Hamas is a terrorist organization, that’s clear,” while objecting to demands that he endorse the group’s destruction.

He has repeatedly condemned Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, saying Ra’am opposed the killings from both a civilian and Islamic religious perspective.

The issue has become a significant obstacle to Eisenkot’s efforts to build a coalition following the October 27 election.

Yisrael Beytenu, another party that has endorsed Eisenkot, has also expressed opposition to relying on parliamentary support from parties unwilling to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.

“It is impossible to expect us to sit in a government that would be dependent on parties that are unwilling to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization,” Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer told Herzog during consultations Wednesday.

Ra’am won eight seats in the October 27 election, while the Joint List secured 11, giving the two Arab-led parties a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Netanyahu’s religious-right bloc won 53 seats, while the four Jewish-led opposition parties secured 48, leaving neither side with a parliamentary majority.

Ra’am’s endorsement could help Eisenkot secure the mandate to form a government, but it does not establish that the party would be accepted into his coalition or that other opposition factions would agree to depend on its support.