Democrat Candidate Slams Channel 12, Advocates Ra'am Coalition Inclusion

Moshe Radman, number 9 on Yair Golan's Democrats list and a prominent anti-government protest leader, has strongly criticized Channel 12 for what he termed "mind engineering" in a coalition-building game published on the N12 app. Radman accused the news outlet of bias, pointing out that while adding Ra'am to a potential coalition triggered a warning message, including parties like Ben Gvir's "Kahane Hai 2," Smotrich's Religious Zionism, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism, Shas, and even the Likud crime organization did not. He argued this constitutes a deliberate manipulation of public perception.

Radman also explicitly voiced support for forming the next government in partnership with Mansour Abbas's Ra'am party. He asserted that a significant majority within the "change bloc" supports such a coalition, blaming the bloc's leadership for hesitating to present this option to the public. "The problem is not with the public, it's with the leadership," Radman stated, urging leaders to clearly declare their willingness to partner with Ra'am.

His remarks echo those of his party leader, Yair Golan, who has also expressed support for including Ra'am in a future government, calling a Jewish-Arab partnership "a positive thing." However, the Democrats previously clarified that the issue of integrating an Arab party into the government had not been discussed in meetings of the "change bloc" leaders.

The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of a Channel 14 investigation into the public statements of Arab parties regarding the third anniversary of the October 7th massacre. The investigation found no expressions of remembrance for the victims or solidarity with their families on the public accounts of Ra'am, the Joint List, and their senior members and candidates. This lack of commemoration was contrasted with a statement from the Joint List regarding the Gaza war, which called to stop the "genocide in Gaza" but did not mention the massacre victims. Additionally, MK Yasser Hujairat from Ra'am caused controversy by avoiding a direct answer on whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, suggesting parts of it engage in charity.