Ra’am’s Abbas, former Yesh Atid MK Segalovitz confirm ongoing talks on Knesset run

Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas and former Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz confirmed on Thursday that they are holding discussions regarding the Jewish politician’s potential membership in the Islamist party.

In a joint statement, the pair announced that they “met today and discussed in a good and positive spirit the possibility of Segalovitz joining the Ra’am slate in the upcoming Knesset election” on October 27, adding that their discussions would continue.

A former senior police officer, Segalovitz established the police Lahav 433 unit to fight serious crime and is a former commander of the police’s Investigations and Intelligence Division. He has been credited with helping reduce crime in Arab Israeli communities during his tenure as deputy minister for public security in the previous government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. Segalovitz submitted his resignation letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on Sunday, and announced his exit from Yesh Atid several days before that.

Rumors of Segalovitz’s contacts with Abbas have been circulating for weeks, with a recent television poll showing that if the former Yesh Atid lawmaker joined Ra’am, the party would pick up two more seats, going from five to an unprecedented seven.

He intends to take the No 2 spot on Ra’am’s ticket, a source from the Arab community close to Segalovitz told the Haaretz daily last month, which would make him very likely to return to the Knesset.

He reportedly does not intend to join any party unless it recognizes Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and supports national civilian service – an alternative to the military draft – for Arab citizens of Israel.

The move could boost Abbas’s legitimacy as a possible coalition partner in the eyes of opposition parties, some of which are opposed to a potential government that includes Arab-majority factions.

Ra’am was part of the coalition during the previous government headed by Bennett and Lapid, though Bennett now rejects the party as a coalition partner, saying that following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre, Israel’s coalition should not depend on a non-Zionist party.

A historically Islamist party affiliated with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, Ra’am has taken steps to depart from its religious roots and emphasize a civic identity, with Abbas stating in December that the party will separate from the religious council that it is linked to and establish its own institutions.

Abbas has repeatedly condemned the October 7 atrocities and recognized Israel as a Jewish state, although he has faced pushback within the party. In 2023, one party MK drew harsh criticism from her Jewish colleagues when she cast doubt on some elements of the October 7 massacre by Hamas.

In January, Abbas announced that Ra’am would become a broad-based party open to Jewish candidates.

“Every citizen of the State of Israel — Jewish and Arab — can join Ra’am and be among its Knesset candidates,” Abbas said in a radio interview with Radio 103FM. “I want to expand the ranks of the party within Jewish society.”

Abbas has long made a focus on combating crime a central pillar of Ra’am’s political identity, stating that the “systematic failure” is not limited to Arab society.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters regularly condemn and delegitimize the Arab parties. Abbas has stated that Netanyahu attempted to woo him to join a coalition after the 2020 elections, but that he chose to partner with the Bennett-led bloc.

Only Yair Golan, the leader of the left-wing Democrats, has openly encouraged his fellow opposition leaders to partner with Ra’am again, and urged them to “stop playing along” with the demonization of the party.

Responding to Abbas and Segalovitz’s announcement, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party on Thursday claimed that Abbas was “attempting, through Yoav Segalovitz, to gain control over the National Security Ministry” in order to ease conditions for detained terrorists, halt demolitions of Arab homes in the Negev and turn the Negev and Galilee into “Islamic territory.”

Ariela Karmel contributed to this report.

As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.

This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world. 

If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.

— Gabriella Jacobs, multimedia journalist

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.

So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.

For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel