Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas said Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him during coalition negotiations in 2021 that he and then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar understood each other. Netanyahu’s Likud party rejected the account on Wednesday, calling it “a complete lie” and saying no such exchange had occurred.
Speaking to Channel 12, Abbas placed the conversation at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, where he said the two discussed whether Ra’am could enter a Netanyahu-led government. The talks took place during the 11-day Operation Guardian of the Walls conflict with Hamas. They failed to produce an agreement, and Ra’am subsequently joined the government led by Naftali Bennett.
According to Abbas, Netanyahu described receiving a message from Sinwar in 2018 encouraging him to take a “calculated risk” amid negotiations over a long-term ceasefire. The message appeared to concern an emerging arrangement allowing regular Qatari assistance into Gaza for employees of the Hamas government and needy families. Abbas said Netanyahu told him that he and Sinwar “understand each other.”
Israel began permitting monthly transfers of millions of dollars in Qatari cash through its crossings into Gaza in 2018 to sustain a fragile ceasefire. By early 2021, about $30 million was arriving each month in suitcases through an Israeli-controlled crossing. The arrangement was highly contentious and seldom publicly acknowledged by Israeli officials, although much of the defense establishment supported it as a means of securing extended periods of quiet.
Abbas accused Netanyahu of trusting Sinwar at the expense of Israeli citizens’ security. He said he wanted to testify about their conversation before a state commission investigating the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. Netanyahu has refused to establish such a commission into the failures that allowed the assault. His critics say he wrongly believed Hamas had been deterred from launching a major attack. Israeli forces killed Sinwar in 2024 during the ensuing war.
The allegation followed Netanyahu’s remarks at the opening of the new Knesset after the October 27 election. The prime minister accused Ra’am and the Joint List of supporting terrorism and seeking Israel’s destruction. Abbas said the speech astounded him, describing it as incitement that endangered him and his family. He said the Arab parties represented law-abiding citizens and reiterated support for peace, a two-state solution and condemnation of terrorism.
Responding to Likud’s denial on Wednesday, Abbas told public broadcaster Kan that he was prepared to undergo a polygraph examination and challenged Netanyahu to do the same. He also said other people had been present during the disputed conversation.
Netanyahu lost his parliamentary majority in last month’s election, and President Isaac Herzog gave rival Gadi Eisenkot the mandate to form a government on Sunday. Abbas nevertheless said Netanyahu confidant Natan Eshel had recently contacted him on the premier’s behalf to ask about Ra’am joining an alternative coalition and its position on legislation barring criminal defendants from serving as prime minister. Netanyahu faces three graft cases, denies wrongdoing and describes his prosecution as a witch hunt.
Abbas said Ra’am sought to help establish a suitable replacement government and address problems facing Arab society, beginning with widespread violent crime. Channel 12 reported Monday that Eshel had repeatedly approached Abbas before, during and after the election, urging him not to support Eisenkot.
