Mansour Abbas
Ra'am chairman and Knesset member; heads the Ra'am list
Mansour Abbas gets an F
Score: 33 out of 100, the average of 7 measures. Graded on what Abbas has said and done, because I count recorded votes only for the US Congress. Every line is below, with its source.
- D-TyrannyMostly with liberty, 6 sources
- FFree nationsMostly against liberty, 4 sources
- FFree marketsAgainst liberty, 1 source
- FEqual rightsAgainst liberty, 2 sources
- FConscienceMostly against liberty, 3 sources
- FDefenseAgainst liberty, 2 sources
- FBordersMostly against liberty, 3 sources
Abbas, on the record
21 things Abbas has said and done. Each one has its source, and each is marked with the same test I use for votes in Congress. A line that doesn't settle the question is marked as not clear and counts for nothing.
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Asked at a public event in Beersheba about the dangers Israel faces, he said the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme is a real threat but not an existential one and should be left to the professionals.
“I don't see the Iranian nuclear issue as an existential threat to Israel. There is certainly a threat, but we'll leave that to the professionals”
- By the test I use for votes
- Not clear either way
He calls the programme a real threat while declining to call it existential, and proposes no policy either way, so the words do not settle the measure.
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Three days after the 7 October attack he called on the leaders of the armed factions in Gaza to release the hostages they held.
“I call on the leadership of the Palestinian factions in Gaza to release the captives in your hands.”
- By the test I use for votes
- With liberty
Demanding that terror groups free their hostages is confronting them, not excusing them.
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Told CNN that armed Palestinian groups must give up their weapons and condemned the 7 October massacre as immoral and against Islam; his party said the next day that the weapons would pass to a Palestinian state once one is established.
“the palestinian organizations need to unload their weapons.”
- By the test I use for votes
- With liberty
Condemning a terror attack and calling on the armed groups to disarm confronts them, though his party then tied the disarming to a future state.
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Asked on Channel 13 whether Hamas, after 7 October, should be treated as an outcast like ISIS, he answered that Hamas is a faction and part of the Palestinian people.
“Hamas is a faction.”
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Declining to set Hamas apart as a terror group after 7 October, and calling it a faction, is refusing to call a terror group one.
-
In a Kan interview he said Hamas had committed crimes and that those who committed crimes should pay the price, while saying he had no opinion on whether Israel had committed crimes.
“those who committed crimes should pay the price, hamas has committed crimes”
- By the test I use for votes
- With liberty
Saying a terror group must pay for its crimes backs holding it to account.
-
Asked again and again on Kan Reshet Bet radio whether Hamas is a terrorist organisation that should be destroyed, he declined to answer, after saying his party had condemned the crimes of 7 October.
“I have a straight answer; I just don't want to say it.”
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Declining, when asked directly, to call a terror army a terror group is refusing to call a terror group one.
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Asked at the Globes Israel Business Conference whether he could accept Israel as a Jewish state, he said it was born one and will remain one, and that the question is the status of its Arab citizens.
“The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state. That's the people's decision and the question is not about the identity of the state. It was born that way and that's how it will remain.”
- By the test I use for votes
- With liberty
Accepting the country as its people founded it, where other Arab parties demand that it stop being a Jewish state, stands with the democracy rather than against its existence.
-
In a short Arabic speech in the Knesset, eleven weeks after the 7 October attack and with hostages still held in Gaza, he demanded that the war end outright, not only a ceasefire.
“our demand today is being made clearly and openly, and it is that this war come to an end, not just a ceasefire.”
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Demanding that the country stop its defense while the terror army that attacked it still holds hostages goes against that defense.
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In a Knesset speech he called for ending the war in Gaza, saying 50,000 civilians had been murdered there; the Speaker ordered him removed from the podium.
“50,000 civilians who were murdered in the gaza strip”
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Calling the country's war against Hamas the murder of civilians, and demanding it end while hostages were still held, goes against the country's defense.
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In an Arabic Facebook post during the 2026 campaign he wrote that Israel's Jewish character is a fact forced on Arab citizens, which Arab parties accept because otherwise they could be barred from elections.
“The Jewish character of the state is an existing fact that was imposed on us, and we did not choose it”
- By the test I use for votes
- Not clear either way
Accepting the state as it is while saying the acceptance was forced neither backs nor opposes the country, so it does not settle the measure.
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In the talks to form the Bennett-Lapid government he won a NIS 30 billion five-year state plan for developing the Arab sector, double the previous plan.
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Doubling a state spending plan is much more state spending.
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The coalition agreement his party signed to join the Bennett-Lapid government, the first time an Arab party joined an Israeli government, commits the government to Arab representation in public offices and state companies in line with their share of the population.
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Setting places in public offices by national group is a quota by group.
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As a condition for joining the coalition he demanded that the new government's guidelines include no laws in favour of the LGBT community.
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Keeping laws for gay people out of a government's programme as a price of support opposes equal rights for gay people under the same law.
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During the May 2021 riots he visited a synagogue in Lod burned by Arab rioters, called for calm, and said he would lead the restoration of the synagogues that were harmed.
“We are willing to take part in restoring the synagogues that were harmed. I will lead it.”
- By the test I use for votes
- With liberty
Pledging to rebuild another faith's houses of worship after they were burned protects every faith's freedom to worship.
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Told the Kul al-Arab newspaper that the Temple Mount belongs to Muslims only and that his party was working inside the government for a commitment that non-Muslims will not worship there.
“We are working in the government to make a commitment not to invade the al-Aqsa mosque, not to perform religious worship on it by non-Muslims as it is a Muslim-only right.”
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Using a place in government to keep people of other faiths from worshipping at a holy site puts one religion's rule into state policy, against equal freedom to worship.
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Ra'am, which he leads and which sat in the governing coalition, reached an agreement with the finance minister for 35 state posts for Muslim imams in the Interior Ministry.
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
State money for religious posts agreed with a party in return for its support is a state favour to religious bodies, against liberty on conscience.
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On Radio al-Nas, days after saying national service could help Arab society, he said the service he means is voluntary community work independent of the state, and that the rights of Arab citizens do not depend on any service to it.
“our rights as an arab society, as natives and indigenous people of this country, are not dependent on such conditions”
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Rejecting any duty of service to the state for a whole group of citizens keeps that group outside the service the country depends on.
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Said at a national security conference that he backs civic service for Arab citizens in a framework of its own, and told the Arab outlet Bokra it should be voluntary and fully separate from any military or security body.
“a framework is needed that addresses both the needs of young arab citizens and broader israeli expectations”
- By the test I use for votes
- Not clear either way
Backing a voluntary civilian service while ruling out military or security service neither shares the army's burden nor rejects all service, so it does not settle the measure.
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The same coalition agreement extends the freeze on enforcement, fines and demolition of illegal buildings until 2024 and grants legal status to most of the unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Negev.
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Freezing enforcement of the building law and legalising villages built without permits sets aside the enforcement of the country's own laws.
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Voted for extending the citizenship law, which bars residency through marriage for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, in a vote the coalition had made a vote of confidence; the extension failed 59 to 59.
- By the test I use for votes
- With liberty
Voting to keep a limit on residency for people from the Palestinian territories backs the state's control of who settles in it.
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When the Knesset passed the citizenship law in March 2022, which bars residency through marriage for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, the members of his party voted against it.
- By the test I use for votes
- Against liberty
Voting against a law that limits residency for people from the Palestinian territories is voting against the state's control of who settles in it.
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