Israeli Arab MP who called Palestinian prisoners terrorists “stabbed a knife in the back of the Palestinian national struggle against racism,” says PA daily op-ed

Excerpt of an op-ed by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: “Is Mansour Abbas acting against the opinion of the Islamic Movement?”

“In his statements to an Israeli TV channel, in which he described the Palestinian prisoners as ‘terrorists’ (see note below -Ed.), [Israeli Arab Parliament Member] Mansour Abbas crossed all the national red lines; his usage of the Israeli term to describe the prisoners constitutes stabbing a knife in the back of the Palestinian national struggle against the occupation and racism, and more precisely in the back of the sacrifices that the members of his people – the heroic prisoners – have made.

In recent months Mansour Abbas created a large problem in [the political party] the Joint Arab List, when he began to open channels by moving closer to right-wing and corrupt Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

The mention of statements by Israeli Arab Parliament Member Mansour Abbas refers to an interview he gave to Israeli TV Channel 12 on Feb. 4, 2021, in which he said: “Placing me as a terror supporter or embracer of terrorists – that never was. Whoever published that I visited the prison and met with terrorists and embraced them – that never happened.”