Banning Ra’am From Running

Peloni

Mansour Abbas on the eve of joining the Bennett-Lapid govt. Screengrab via Youtube

As the bill to collapse the government was recently put forward, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his competitors are all looking forward to the challenges of the coming election competition, but if Netahyahu has his way, one party may need not worry about their electoral chances, and that would be the Ra’am party led by Mansour Abbas.  Channel 13 is reporting that the government has begun to take steps to define the party as a terrorist organization, and thereby preclude their party from competing in the soon to be decided elections in the coming fall.

Notably, Ra’am is the Southern Branch of the Islamic movement, ie the Muslim Brotherhood.  In the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to ban the Middle Eastern chapters of the Brotherhood last year, PM Netanyahu followed Trump’s lead and also called for the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood.  It was only a month later that Abbas announced his decision to divest his party from the Brotherhood and become a “completely civic party, with separate institutions”.  The motivation in protecting his party from being banned due to its long term affiliation seems clear enough, and the reality is that the practice of divestment and relabeling is how the many limbs of the Muslim Brotherhood have been able to survive over the years amid infrequent moves to ban outlaw the Brotherhood.  So like a chameleon changing its color, the former entity moves on with subtle changes which are used to shield it from prosecutions during crackdowns on the organization over the years.  Of course, Dr. Moredchai Kedar , a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University as well as being an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, reminds us of the relevance of the Muslim practice of taqiyya in dissembling reality while pursuing the goals of their faith.

More relevant than just Ra’am’s Muslim Brotherhood affiliation, of course, is its connection with a now dissolved charity.  The charity, called Igatha, which had previous to its being dissolved, was closely connected with Ra’am, and in fact, Igatha was listed by the Israeli Registrar of NGOs as “belong[ing] to Hamas and the members of the organization are Hamas activists.”  This game of Hamas complicity with so-called humanitarian aid NGOs has recently been demonstrated more broadly as the NGOs funnel massive funds and produce significant propaganda on behalf of the Gaza chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Due to an investigation by HaKol HaYehudi, it was found that Igatha was actually transferring millions of NIS to organizations which had been outlawed in Israel, including a Hamas front-group called Khir Ummah.  

While testifying before a Knesset National Security Committee, a reporter for HaKol HaYehudi noted that all the evidence gathered during their investigation was opened source material which was for one reason or another ignored by the authorities.  Notably, the period in which these illicit money transfers were made by the Ra’am affiliated Igatha ‘charity’ was 2020-2023, overlapping Ra’am’s vital role in the Bennett-Lapid government of 2021-2022.

The consequence of all of this is that the Netanyahu government is attempting to prevent Ra’am from being included in the upcoming elections,to which Abbas has responded, “Netanyahu aspires to decide the upcoming elections by disqualifying Ra’am in an anti-democratic way. It is the duty of the Shin Bet to act in a statesmanlike and lawful manner and to preserve the order of the democratic regime and its institutions, and not to be a servant tool in the hands of the political echelon during an election period. Our response to this anti-democratic move will be at the ballot box.”

Yair Golan of the Democrats party, and the final leader of the now disbanded Labor party, added the weight of his voice to Abbas’ criticism over the attempt to prevent Ra’am from taking part in the election, while focusing on his criticism of Min. Itamar Ben-Gvir, all while ignoring the rather glaring relevance of Ra’am’s connection to the crimes committed by Igatha’s in supporting Hamas during the time in which they were at war with the nation.