Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas became the first Arab party leader in Israel’s history to publicly call on the armed Palestinian factions to demilitarise and work with the Palestinian Authority in order to establish a Palestinian state through non-violent means.
In a TV interview he began by condemning the Hamas attack of 7/10.
“Any action that is taken against innocent people - against women, children, the elderly - is inhumane and it goes against the values of Islam as well. We categorically condemn this. This is not open to discussion - it cannot be justified because it goes against all human values and religious values as well.
But at the same time, we cannot forget that there is a political struggle that is happening.
But the actions that the armed groups have decided to take and to use violence in order to achieve their means have - looking at the past - always failed. The victim of each and every one of those militant attempts have been the Palestinian people who were the ones who paid the price. In this current conflict, we look at the number of people killed, we’re talking about over 15,000 Palestinians who lost their lives.”
Those are words I would expect from every devout Muslim, although I don't hear enough of them from their leaders. But then came this:
“In order to move forward, the Palestinian militant groups need to throw down their arms. They need to work hand in hand with the Palestinian Authority in order to realise a national movement that will work for a state of Palestine in a peaceful solution alongside the state of Israel.”
As well as the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups this also includes the armed wings of all the main political parties - Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the PFLP's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the DFLP's National Resistance Brigades, plus the PRC's Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, the Mujahadeen Brigades, the Lions Den groups, and the Salafi-jihadi groups and a few others whose names escape me. Militias like these should all have been disarmed under the terms of one political treaty the Israelis and Palestinians negotiated - the Oslo Accords - and under the 'roadmap' laid out by the International Quartet in the 2000s.
So in just a few clear and precise words, Mansour Abbas calls for all factions to lay down their arms after over 75 years of failure, but also recognises the right of Israel to exist alongside a Palestinian state - none of this river to the sea nonsense.
Once again it's incredibly brave of him to speak out, especially at this fraught time. The racists won't be happy and even the Shura Council which runs Ra'am will not be happy, just as they weren't previously when he acknowledged that Israel is a Jewish state. As for Hamas, Sinwar had already put him on their hit list for having the temerity to take an Islamist party into an Israeli government.
Can it be done? Certainly not by force - the PA tried it in the 2000s but quickly gave up in the face of opposition. Persuasion would need many, many voices to be raised - including Palestinian and other Arab leaders and religious leaders, plus international voices from 'friends' of Palestine - and as yet there are none. However, at the moment it's impossible to peer out of the hell hole we are in to worry about something that lies well in the future.
Here in Ashdod we are back to full strength in the number of volunteers we have so everyone's been able to have a couple of days off each week. My wife and I visited friends we haven't seen for years up near Nazareth. As Arab-Israelis their viewpoint on 7/10 was interesting - it pretty much echoed Mansour's.
The ceasefire broke about 4 hours after I'd got to bed following a late night trip to the hospital in Tel Aviv with one of the babies who'd suddenly declined. Since 7/10 we've had no babies arrive here from Gaza - in that time normally there could be up to 20 arrive. We've had more Kurdish babies arrive plus one from Iraq and another from Lebanon. Because neither country recognises Israel the families have to go to Jordan, pass through Allenby where someone from here picks them up and takes them to the hospital. All adds to the cost!
Three familIes that returned to Gaza just before 7/10 got in touch to say they were safe. One was held in one of the hospitals in Gaza City but one day they got up and all the Hamas guards had disappeared - "melted away" is the closest in English - so everyone flooded out and made their way south. She made a video call on her phone as they were heading south on a horse and cart, the baby still attached to her portable ventilator and her elder sister jabbering excitedly about what must have seemed like a big adventure for her.
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With more volunteers due here next week we will be heading home a couple of days later. In many ways we'll be sad to leave and we've made quite a few new friends that we hope to stay in touch with. Hopefully,if or when we come back, it will be during more normal times, a time of construction not destruction.
