Likud MK Fateen Mulla expressed disappointment at the results of the Likud primaries on Thursday morning in a conversation with 103FM, saying that no other election campaign during his years in Likud had been as difficult as the one he just experienced.
"I went to bed at three in the morning after four days; this battle was not easy," he told the radio station, adding that he was still waiting for the finalized list to be released later in the day once the vote count had finished.
"It's a shame that this whole battle and this whole campaign was a list of eliminations; that's not the Likud I know... I have known the Likud for years; there has been nothing else like this," said Mulla, a Druze politician who has served as an MK in the party's slot reserved for minority populations since 2019.
"The Druze vote will decide who the prime minister is."
MK Fateen Mulla
Back in July, Mulla also sharply criticized Likud after the party made the decision to move the slot reserved for a minority MK to number 44 on the list. As the party is only predicted to win around 35 seats in the elections, the decision means that it would be close to impossible for a person elected to that slot to actually enter the Knesset.
“Everything the media says about this party is true – [it is a] sh*t party,” he told Army Radio at the time.
"I didn't do anything wrong, I returned the minority vote to the Likud," he told 103FM on Thursday. "There is no justice. The conduct of the Likud court: It is not a court, but rather just a group of people targeting candidates."
Mulla stressed, however, that his disappointment was not aimed at Likud voters, but rather at the mechanisms of the party itself.
How should Likud voters vote?
"I respect every decision of the Likud voters, and wherever I am placed on the list I accept the results in good spirits," said Mulla. "I was loyal to the party, to the party leader, to my friends. There has been significant harm done to the Druze community [in Israel] and to the other minorities... representation is supposed to be guaranteed for all minorities but apparently, they don't want minorities in Likud."
"I think Druze people and minorities will take this into account when considering Likud."
MK Fateen Mulla
An analysis of voting trends in Israel's Arab communities during the elections for the 24th Knesset showed that 20.5% of Druze Israelis who voted in the elections voted for Likud, second only to Yisrael Beytenu who received 28% of the Druze community's vote.
"I think Druze people and minorities will take this into account when considering Likud," Mulla claimed at the end of the conversation. "It's a big loss for the Likud – a mandate or a mandate and a half – and that's a shame. The Druze vote will decide who the prime minister is.
"It's a very dangerous and unthinkable thing to have a party so loved by the Druze in which minorities do not have representation," he said. "In the 24th Knesset, I managed to bring in 12,000 votes from the Druze, something that had never happened before. Good luck to them - in my opinion, Netanyahu needs to do the math."