1. Mansour Abbas is currently the leader of the United Arab List and represents the party in the Knesset.
26 Facts About Mansour Abbas
1. 2.
Mansour Abbas was appointed as the chair of Special Committee on Arab Society Affairs in the Knesset on 27 April 2021.
3.
In 2021 Abbas made history by becoming the first Israeli Arab political leader to join an Israeli governing coalition.
4.
Mansour Abbas was born in the town of Maghar in the Northern District of Israel, to a Muslim-Arabic family.
5.
Mansour Abbas's parents were farmers, and he had 10 siblings.
6.
Mansour Abbas began delivering sermons at the Peace Mosque in Maghar at the age of 17.
7.
Mansour Abbas attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to study dentistry.
8.
In 2007, Mansour Abbas became Secretary General of the United Arab List, and in 2010 he was elected Deputy Chairman of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement.
9.
Mansour Abbas was elected to the Knesset as the alliance won four seats.
10.
Mansour Abbas attracted controversy when he spoke in support of conversion therapy to LGBTQ+ youth in an interview with Walla News, leading to his condemnation by other Joint List politicians.
11.
Mansour Abbas gave an interview with the right-wing pro-Netanyahu Channel 20 Network, where he advocated working with Zionist parties in order to secure the funds and reforms needed for the benefit of Arab Israeli society.
12.
On 21 April 2020, Mansour Abbas delivered a historic speech on the Holocaust in the Knesset in which he spoke of the suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis.
13.
Mansour Abbas joined the rest of the Joint List in voting against the Abraham Accords.
14.
Mansour Abbas attributed this position to the influence of his mentor, Sheikh Abdullah, and described Abdullah's funeral as a philosophical turning point for him.
15.
Mansour Abbas's actions earned him both praise from Jewish leaders and politicians, and anger from Muslim leaders, including calls to resign.
16.
On 2 June 2021, after holding negotiations with Israeli opposition figures Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, Mansour Abbas renewed his commitment to backing a non-Netanyahu government after signing a coalition agreement with Lapid, thereby forming the thirty-sixth government of Israel.
17.
Mansour Abbas was widely credited with accomplishing an "historic step" forward for Arab Israelis in securing this unprecedented amount of funding.
18.
On 9 November 2021 Mansour Abbas met with King Abdullah II of Jordan, the first occasion where the king has met an Arab party leader who is a sitting member of the Israeli government; the two discussed the peace process and reiterated their support for a two-state solution.
19.
On 21 December 2021 Mansour Abbas said that Israel was born as a Jewish state and will remain so, provoking outrage from members of other Arab parties.
20.
Mansour Abbas led his party into the 2022 Israeli legislative election, where he was reelected.
21.
Mansour Abbas was praised in a November 2022 op-ed in The New York Times by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who described him as "brave".
22.
Mansour Abbas condemned the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
23.
Mansour Abbas has been stated to be conservative and socially conservative and has opposed pro-LGBT legislation.
24.
Mansour Abbas has spoken out in support of conversion therapy for LGBT people.
25.
Mansour Abbas publicly accepts Israel as a de facto Jewish state and states that it does not practice apartheid.
26.
Mansour Abbas is married with three children and lives in Maghar; his wife, Yakoot, is a high school English teacher.