Ra'am Holds Primaries to Select Top Candidates for Upcoming Knesset Elections

The United Arab List (Ra'am) is conducting its 28th general assembly and primaries on Saturday in Tayibe, marking 30 years since the party's founding. Around 1,050 members from across Israel are participating to elect the top five candidates for the upcoming Knesset elections. The party's executive committee will select candidates ranked six through ten. Former MK Yoav Segalovich is not running in the primaries but is expected to secure a realistic spot on the list following ongoing talks with Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas.

Segalovich was previously part of the Joint List alliance with Hadash-Ta'al-Balad, which recently urged Ra'am to heed the Arab public's desire for unified leadership and to rejoin the alliance. However, Ra'am appears determined to run independently. At the opening of the event, Ra'am described the conference as a "central organizational and political milestone" amid the difficult circumstances facing the Arab community and the "unprecedented racist policies" of the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich government.

The party emphasized its efforts to topple the current government and replace it with a new coalition that includes the United Arab List, aiming to address urgent issues affecting the Arab community in Israel.