Mansour Abbas announces retirement: Next Israeli elections to be his last as MK
Although he appears willing to retire, Abbas’s departure from the Knesset may not be entirely within his control.
Ra’am Chairman MK Mansour Abbas announced to the Knesset Channel on Wednesday that he plans to retire after his next election campaign.
“I have one more opportunity. I will probably run in the next elections and try to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself,” Abbas said. “I don’t think I need to continue being a Knesset member after that.”
He added that "it’s better to be on a mission — to come and try to do things — and then give others a chance," in reference to leading his party in the Knesset.
"On the first day I entered the Knesset, I came with an agenda to eradicate crime and violence in the Arab sector,” said Abbas. “It evolved into an agenda of influence and value-based civic partnership, and now an agenda of achieving peace and ending the conflict has been added to it.”
Although he appears willing to retire, Abbas’s departure from the Knesset may not be entirely within his control.
“What Mansour Abbas doesn’t say is that this is not his personal decision at all,” tweeted Israeli-Arab journalist and N12 reporter Mohammad Magadli. “According to the Ra’am bylaws, he cannot run after the next term, even if he wanted to.”
Ra’am Party
Ra’am, otherwise known as the United Arab List, is an Arab-Israeli political party associated with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. The party joined the Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government in 2021, making Abbas the first Arab-Israeli party leader to sit in a coalition government in over 50 years.
Despite Ra’am’s return to the opposition in 2022, Abbas told Army Radio in January that "if a government is formed that will agree to a hostage deal and an end to the war, Ra'am will be a safety net that will allow [said government] to live out its days."
The party currently holds five seats in the Knesset.