Despite repeated declarations of support for Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, right-wing parties continue pressuring Ofer Winter and his Amcha Yisrael party to withdraw from the Knesset race. Yosef Haddad, a senior party figure, addressed the criticism and made clear there's one political leader his party will never join in coalition after the election.
Haddad also weighed in on the Central Elections Committee's disqualification of the Joint List and Ra'am, predicting the High Court will overturn the decision. "It doesn't work on me, maybe it works on part of Jewish society, and suddenly Mansour Abbas has become the national bogeyman," he said.
"This is the same Mansour Abbas who refuses to say Hamas is a terror organization, the same Mansour Abbas who says Jews have no claim to the Western Wall," Haddad continued.
"The High Court will bring back Mansour Abbas and probably Ahmad Tibi and Yousef Jabareen as well. As far as the High Court is concerned, Abbas will sit in the next Knesset, but from a coalition perspective, if Mansour Abbas is there it's simply a very big disaster for Israeli Arab society, for Arab society as a whole, and for representatives of Arab communities."
"The Same Claims Every Time"
Haddad then turned to Amcha Yisrael's position and the battle for right-wing votes. According to him, the attacks on the party are actually strengthening it.
"We're at the heart of the political campaign, they're attacking us from this side and that side, and we're continuing with our work. We're going out to the field, yesterday we were in Lod and we're seeing the love within Israeli society," he said.
