Pro-Israel advocacy group Ad Kan has called to disqualify the Ra'am Islamist faction from the upcoming parliamentary elections due to alleged ties to terrorism.
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It said that Ra'am was an integral part of the Islamic Movement, which split in 1996 into southern and northern factions, which is when the faction was created with the aim of running for the Knesset. The NGO alleged that the movement runs a variety of non-profit organizations and companies – some of which were established after Ra'am joined the Bennett-Lapid government – and collects charity that is later transferred to various outlawed institutions and terror groups, including Hamas.
Ad Kan argued that as part of an entity that "transfers millions to outlawed groups," Ra'am could not possibly continue to be a political faction in the Knesset.
Similarly, the head of the far-right Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich called on Monday for all Arab factions to be banned.
Speaking at the Reichmann University's World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, he said that the parties constitute "the most dangerous security threat to Israel today."
"They are the first to lead the hostile discourse against Israel and against its right to exist," Smotrich said.
"The concealment efforts led by [Ra'am leader] Mansour Abbas in the old and well-known method of the Islamic Movement camouflage radical, extremist Islamist nationalism, which seeks to destroy the State of Israel and replace it with one big Islamic caliphate," he claimed.
His remarks drew criticism from Arab lawmakers, who accused him of racism and supremacy.
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