Mansour Abbas, chairman of the Arab Israeli Raam party, said that his caucus would sever its ties with the Shura Council, an consultative Islamic religious authority. The move, which would see Raam break away from Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamic Movement that currently guides its decision-making, seeks to legitimize the party in the eyes of the Israeli public and open it to a larger voting bloc inside Israel, analysts say. 

Abbas' Dec. 6 announcement came mere weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order stipulating that "certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations." 

Abbas told Israel’s Channel 12 in an interview Monday that Raam aspires to become a nonreligious party with institutions separate from those of the Islamic Movement. He said that the Kafr Qassem-based Shura Council — the Islamic Movement’s highest authority — will no longer serve as the arbiter of the party’s decisions, adding that next month the party will hold a conference to approve these changes.

Israel's Islamic Movement