Ra’am (United Arab List)

The United Arab List (Ra’am) is a religious Arab Muslim party, currently led by Mansour Abbas. An overview of its charter can be found here.

The party won 5 Knesset seats in Israel’s November 2022 legislative elections.

Ra’am is associated with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which broke from the northern branch over the question of political participation in the Knesset and the Oslo Accords. (The northern branch boycotts Israeli elections). Ra’am largely focuses on social-economic issues for Palestinian citizens, with a conservative cultural outlook that has sometimes put it at odds with the other more secular, liberal Arab parties.

The modern Islamic movement in Israel was founded by Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish in the 1970s. Following the internal split, Darwish led the southern branch.

Ra’am was formerly part of the Joint List but split from it ahead of the March 2021 elections. It had previously run with Balad in the May 2019 elections as part of the joint Balad-Ra’am list.