Ra’am chief: We need to create partnerships and ‘see the other as a human being, not as an enemy’; Segalovitz: ‘The assertion that after October 7 it is impossible to maintain a political partnership with Arab parties is false’
Yoav Segalovitz, left, and Ra’am party chairman Mansour Abbas at a press conference announcing a joint Knesset run, in Nazareth. August 31, 2026.
Mansour Abbas and Yoav Segalovitz, a Jewish former police official, lawmaker and deputy minister, announced Monday evening that Segalovitz will run with Abbas’s Arab Ra’am party in the October 27 election.
The announcement capped weeks of speculation that Segalovitz would take the unprecedented step of joining with Ra’am. While the predominantly Arab party Hadash has long included a Jewish lawmaker, Ra’am has never done so.
Ra’am’s top priority is eliminating crime and violence against innocent civilians, Abbas stated at a press conference in Nazareth, asserting that every Arab parent goes to sleep asking themselves, “Will my children return home safely?”
The only way to accomplish this goal is to create partnerships and “to see the other as a human being, not as an enemy,” he continued, praising Segalovitz as “an officer who has stood up to criminals his whole life without asking what their religion is” and “an honest, quiet man who doesn’t seek headlines.”
Segalovitz established the police’s Lahav 433 unit to fight serious crime and is a former commander of the police’s Investigations and Intelligence Division. He was credited with helping reduce crime in Arab Israeli communities during his tenure as deputy minister for public security in the 2021-2022 government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
Surveys have shown that the inclusion of Segalovitz, a former member of the centrist Yesh Atid party who recently resigned from the Knesset, could boost Ra’am’s showing at the polls.
As for why an Arab party needs a Jewish police officer, “My answer is simple,” Abbas said. “I’m not looking for someone who is like me. I’m looking for someone who knows how to do the job. And the Arab citizen who buried his son doesn’t ask what the policeman’s religion is. He asks why no one comes.”
Addressing his decision to run with Abbas, Segalovitz said he was guided by Zionist and Jewish values and that while he and Abbas do not intend to change each other, “it is possible to cooperate politically based on trust, recognition of difference, and commitment to joint action.”
“The common assertion that after October 7 it is impossible to maintain a political partnership with Arab parties is baseless and false,” Segalovitz continued, adding that he wants to “break the paradigm of how political partnership is created.”
Segalovitz will not become a member of the Ra’am party but will run on the Ra’am slate in a technical alliance. He will retain freedom of action in the Knesset while Ra’am will not change its constitution or decision-making processes.
While reports have previously said Segalovitz was conditioning the move on Ra’am recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, there was no such announcement on Monday.
Channel 12 reported that one of Segalovitz’s top priorities will be to advance national service for Arab citizens.
A Times of Israel poll showed earlier this month that 56 percent of opposition voters would support including Ra’am with Segalovitz in a possible coalition, while 30% opposed doing so. The poll found that if Ra’am joined a governing coalition, it would give the opposition bloc a 63-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Responding to the announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Segalovitz of seeking to establish a Palestinian state. “Even Segalovitz won’t hide the fact that Mansour Abbas refuses to recognize Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations and is pushing to establish a Palestinian state,” it said. “Together with [Gadi] Eisenkot, [Avigdor] Liberman and Yair Golan, they are going to establish a Palestinian state government.”
Abbas recently sparked controversy when he called on Israel to recognize an “independent Palestinian state” during a speech to party delegates at their convention in Taibe.
He subsequently was reported to have reassured opposition party leaders that his belief in the Palestinian right to self-determination would not be translated into a demand for policy change during potential coalition talks after the election. There is currently widespread opposition in Israel to establishing a Palestinian state.
Throughout Israel’s history, Jews have not served as Arab parties’ representatives in the Knesset, with the notable exception of the communist Hadash party and its predecessors, which have traditionally been associated with the Arab bloc of parties while featuring joint Arab-Jewish representation.
Reference Link:- https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-former-mk-yoav-segalovitz-announces-unprecedented-run-with-arab-raam-party/