Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, also known by the Hebrew name Ra'am delivers a statement in Nazareth, Israel, on Apr 1, 2021. JERUSALEM: The leader of an Arab Islamist party in Israel delivered a prime-time address in Hebrew on Thursday that was carried live by major TV networks, calling for coexistence between Arabs and Jews in a stunning display of the community's newfound political influence.
“The time has arrived to listen to the other, to recognise the narratives and to look for what we have in common,” he said in fluent Hebrew, speaking against a backdrop of green flags in the northern city of Nazareth. Arabs make up around 20 per cent of Israel's population of 9.3 million. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, but have long faced discrimination in housing and public services. They have close family ties to the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and largely identify with the Palestinian cause, leading many Israeli Jews to view them with suspicion.
No Arab party has ever asked or been invited to sit in an Israeli government, but Abbas' faction or the reduced Joint List could provide support from outside that would allow a government to be formed.
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