Arab Lawmaker Mansour Abbas Tells Confab ‘Israel Is Jewish State’

Mansour Abbas, the head of Israel’s Ra’am-United Arab List party, told a conference in Israel that “the State of Israel was born as a Jewish state, and it will remain one.” The question, he continued, is “what is the status of the Arab citizen in the Jewish State of Israel.” Abbas made the statement during an onstage interview with Israel’s Channel 12 commentator Muhammad Mafadli on Tuesday during the Israel Business Conference sponsored by the Israeli business newspaper Globes.

Abbas and his party are part of the ruling government coalition in Israel, the first Arab party to join an Israeli government.

“There is no doubt that we are on the threshold of a new era, and I say this cautiously and hope that the process will succeed and that the coalition-level partnership will be a trend toward different partnerships in industry and more,” Abbas said.

Abbas made a similar statement last month during an interview with the Israeli Arabic-language weekly newspaper Kul al-Arab, saying, “Israel is a Jewish state, like it or not, and the question is, what is our position in the state?”