Bedouin Council Head Denies Support for Eisenkot, Claims Coalition Talks Mentioned

The head of the Tuva-Zangaria local council, Muayad al-Haib, has refuted claims that Bedouin local authority leaders who met with "Yesh!" party chairman Gadi Eisenkot pledged their support for him as prime minister. Al-Haib stated that the announcement released by Yesh! following the meeting was "inaccurate and misleading," asserting, "We did not announce our support for him."

Al-Haib explained in an interview with Radio al-Nass that the meeting's purpose was to hear Eisenkot's political vision and discuss issues concerning Arab and Bedouin society. He personally contacted Eisenkot's aides after the announcement to clarify that the published text did not accurately reflect the meeting's content. He was told the announcement was based on an "interpretation between the lines."

However, al-Haib confirmed that during the meeting, he explicitly raised the possibility of integrating the Ra'am party into a future coalition led by Eisenkot. He requested that if Eisenkot were tasked with forming the next government, he should reach out to Ra'am and work to include it in the coalition.

According to al-Haib, Eisenkot agreed on the need to integrate Ra'am and indicated that some contacts were already underway with the party regarding its potential participation in a future government.