Arab Israeli lawmaker urges Gazan terror factions to cease fighting, says violence against Israel 'always failed'

Arab-Israeli Knesset Member Mansour Abbas urged Hamas and other members of Gazan terrorist organizations to put down their weapons amid the ongoing conflict with the Jewish state.

"In order to move forward, the Palestinian militant groups need to take down their arms," Abbas said during an interview with the senior CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer.

Abbas, who is currently the leader of the United Arab List and represents his party in the Israeli parliament, urged the Gazan factions to embrace a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Israel. He noted that previous attempts to use violence against Israel “always failed" and stressed that the "Palestinian people were the ones to pay the price."

The Arab-Israeli Knesset member emphasized the need to involve the Palestinian Authority (PA) in a diplomatic process to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel with peaceful relations.

"They need to work hand-in-hand with the Palestinian Authority in order to realize a national movement that would aspire for a Palestinian state with a peaceful resolution alongside with the State of Israel," Abbas stated.

For the first time in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the head of an Arab party in Israel calls on all Palestinian factions to lay down their weapons and unite for an unarmed political struggle.
Knesset member Mansour Abbas. https://t.co/hviP4znAF5

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Abbas did not hesitate to condemn the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of Israel's southern border communities, stressing that “this cannot be discussed and cannot be justified because it goes against all human values and religious values as well." 

Abbas also claimed that Islam prohibits the murder of women and children.

While many Arab-Israeli lawmakers have focused disproportionally on criticizing Israel for the current conflicts in Gaza and the West Bank, Abbas has prioritized the integration of Arab Israelis into Israeli society. In June 2021, Abbas made history by joining the politically diverse coalition government led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Despite his conservative Islamic background, Abbas has gradually emerged as a voice in favor of peaceful coexistence between Israel’s Jewish majority and Arab minority populations. He has done so by emphasizing that Israel should remain both a Jewish and a democratic state with socio-economic and civic equality for all its citizens.

In April 2023, Abbas blasted the Hamas terror organization for trying to incite Arab-Israelis against the Jewish state, creating even more division within Israeli society.

“A great catastrophe, nothing less than that. The mere thought of dragging Palestinian Arab citizens inside Israel into acts of violence of all kinds brings a new calamity,” Abbas told the i24 news outlet.

Abbas also urged both the PA, led by its President Mahmoud Abbas, and the leaders of Hamas to stop interfering in the internal affairs of Arab-Israeli citizens.

“We ask all Palestinian leaders not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Palestinian Arab people, who are citizens of Israel,” the Arab-Israeli lawmaker stated.

The Hamas terror organization had reportedly hoped its Oct. 7 massacre would inspire many Arab-Israelis to join the fight against the Jewish state, however, this has not happened.

Hamas and its accomplices murdered dozens of Arab-Bedouin Israelis and abducted several Arab-Israeli citizens as hostages into Gaza on Oct. 7.

In October, Sami Alkarnawi, an Israeli Bedouin businessman and hotel owner offered free accommodation for 3,000 Israelis displaced after the Hamas Oct. 7 invasion that devastated many southern Israeli border communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip.