War of words rages between Israeli-Arab coalition, opposition legislators

"If we bring them (the Arab Joint List) on board, it would place a burden on the budget. However, we will try to bring them along on issues that won’t affect the budget but are still important, like the Electricity Law," Ra’am Party chairman Mansour Abbas said Aug. 1.

Without knowing, Abbas was responding to a practical joke played on him by the ultra-Orthodox Kol Berama radio station during a discussion with an impersonator who presented himself as Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman. Still, his reaction was very revealing. His remarks came just a few days after a heated exchange in the Knesset between Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List (a unified slate of predominantly Arab parties) and Knesset member Walid Taha of Ra’am over proposed legislation that Tibi was trying to advance. The law concerns the supply of electricity to homes built without an occupancy permit, or a “Form 4” as it is known in the parlance of the Israeli legal code.

At the Knesset, Tibi was giving the impression that the proposed legislation was hitting a wall over a political battle for credits. Taha responded that it should be the coalition and not the opposition to advance the law (and get credit for that). He pointed that Ra’am is a member of the coalition while the Joint List is not. Tibi responded: To hell with the coalition. Let’s do this together.

Within hours, the exchange made its way to social media, where supporters of Ra’am clashed with supporters of Tibi and the Joint List. Safwat Frej, deputy leader of the Islamic Movement’s Southern Branch (affiliated with Ra’am), attacked Tibi on Facebook, writing, "He’s been in the Knesset for 30 years now, and he keeps himself busy by giving speeches. We’ve never seen a Form 4 or anything like that. These days, Arab Knesset members have a say in the government, thanks to Ra’am’s sophisticated behavior."