https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297039'Netanyahu- Mansour Abbas alliance is a disgrace'
MK Matan Kahana blasts Likud after its members fail to attend vote on motion to bar Joint List and Ra’am from running for the Knesset.
Feb 18 , 2021
MK Matan Kahana (Yamina) on Wednesday blasted the Likud party after its members were absent during a discussion in the Central Elections Committee on a motion to bar the predominantly Arab Joint List and Ra’am parties from running for the Knesset.
The committee ultimately rejected the motion by a majority of 15 to 3, with 2 abstentions.
“Something has happened in Israel. The Bibi-Mansour Abbas alliance has allowed embracers of terrorists to become members of the Knesset. The Likud's running away from the vote to disqualify Ra'am and Balad is a low point," Kahana said.
"There are also red lines in an election campaign. The attempt to scrape a few thousand more voters from the Arab sector does not justify cooperating with supporters of terrorism,” he added.
"The legitimacy given today by the Likud to Heba Yazbak, Sami Abu Shehadeh and Mansour Abbas will be remembered eternally in disgrace as one of the shameful moments of the Likud led by Netanyahu. As you may recall, Heba Yazbak praised the murderer Samir Kuntar who smashed a girl's skull just because she was Jewish. The same Yazbak also hailed the abominable terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who headed a group of terrorists who murdered 35 Israelis and according to testimony threw a baby into a burning chair.”
"Netanyahu's new friends from Ra’am visited and encouraged families of terrorists. Mansour Abbas himself visited the family of the terrorist who carried out an attack at the Meron junction in the Second Intifada. These people have no place in the Knesset of Israel. The Prime Minister and the Likud should be ashamed of themselves for the delusional decision to flee the vote," Kahana concluded.
The Likud explained following Wednesday’s vote, "The Joint List and Abbas will not be in our government and we will not be dependent on them in any way because they are supporters of terrorism. In all elections, the Likud votes against the Joint List, then the Supreme Court overturns the decision and the Joint List takes advantage of this to strengthen itself and bring votes. This time we will take the votes because the Arab citizens of Israel are tired of wasting their votes on parties that do nothing for them."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is known to have collaborated with Abbas’ Ra’am party on issues that are important to Arab Israelis in exchange for ensuring Ra’am’s support for Netanyahu for Prime Minister in the upcoming elections.
Abbas recently announced his departure from the Joint List in order to form a new political party.
Hie move followed internal polls he conducted showing that an independent party under his leadership would win six Knesset seats, while the Joint List would fall to just five seats.