Arab party calls for disarmament of Palestinian militants
His original demand has sparked anger among Palestinians and Arabs: In an interview, the chairman of the conservative Islamic Raam party demands that Hamas lay down its weapons. The party leadership has to intervene - and qualifies the statement.
According to media reports, the conservative Islamic Raam party in Israel is calling for the disarmament of extremist Palestinian groups such as Hamas. However, the party emphasized in Israeli media that the surrender of weapons should only take place after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Previously, party chairman Mansur Abbas had demanded in a CNN interview that militant Palestinian groups should lay down their weapons and work together with the Palestinian Authority to strive for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Mansur had meant that a Palestinian state itself would disarm the militant groups, his party clarified according to the media.
According to reports, his original demand in the CNN interview published on Thursday had sparked anger among Palestinians and Arabs. According to media reports, he is the first Arab politician in Israel to publicly call on extremist Palestinian organizations to give up their weapons. In the CNN interview, Abbas also once again condemned the Hamas massacre in Israel.
All measures directed against innocent people, children, women and the elderly were inhumane and against the values of Islam. There is no justification for this. The use of violence by armed Palestinian groups as a means of achieving their goals had always failed in the past, Abbas continued. The Palestinian people always pay the price for this - as is currently the case in the Gaza war.
The Arab Raam party was part of the previous Israeli government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Abbas' decision to join the coalition was seen at the time as a step towards greater integration of the Arab minority, which makes up around 20 percent of the Israeli population. The party later suspended its membership of the coalition due to confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians on the Temple Mount.
The eight-party alliance eventually collapsed due to ideological differences. The party currently has five seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament. Around four percent of Israelis voted for the party in the last election just over a year ago.
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Following the controversy sparked by his CNN interview, Israeli politician Mansur Abbas, chairman of the conservative Islamic Raam party, faced criticism from Palestinians for suggesting that militant groups disarm during the Israel war. Despite the pushback, Abbas clarified that he envisioned a Palestinian state disarming the militant groups, not the groups laying down their weapons themselves.
Source: www.ntv.de
