Ayman Odeh, whose Joint List could win between 13 and 15 seats in the
Knesset, says his main aim is to oust ‘Israel’s worst government in
decades’
In an interview with the Guardian while campaigning in the city of
Lod on Wednesday, Ayman Odeh – whose Joint List could win between 13 and
15 seats in the Israeli Knesset, polls predict – appeared to suggest
his party might recommend opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog to form a government if it meant Netanyahu was ousted.
While Odeh’s party – which has brought together four usually
fractious Arab parties encompassing a spectrum from communist to
Islamist - has made clear it will not join any coalition government
formed by Herzog, any recommendation it might make to the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, on who should be next prime minister could be critically important.
Taking a brief break from a day of hectic campaigning, Odeh said:
“The ultimate goal is to get out Netanyahu. That is the most important
thing. We are not in Herzog’s pocket but we are interested in hearing
what he has to say.
“This has been the worst government in Israel in decades not only
because it killed 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza but because of its racist
policies and because it has entrenched the occupation and increased the
economic gap between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
“It has undermined democracy in the country and increased incitement
against Arabs. That is why we feel the most important thing is to
prevent Netanyahu forming another government.”
Odeh’s comments come as Netanyahu conceded on Thursday that the
centre-left opposition could win next week’s general election calling on
voters not to take the chance with national security. In an interview
with the Jerusalem Post Netanyahu said: “If the gap between the Likud
and Labour continues to grow, a week from now Herzog and Livni will
become the prime ministers of Israel in rotation, with the backing of
the Arab parties.”
Perhaps equally important as deposing Netanyahu – Odeh said – is that
if his party achieves the electoral success the polls suggest, it would
become the third largest in the Israeli parliament making him a
candidate to lead the opposition if the final result – as some suspect –
is a national unity government.
“If there is a national unity cabinet [involving both Herzog and
Netanyahu] we will lead the opposition.” And that would provide Odeh and
his partners with a key platform to campaign for greater rights for Israeli Arabs
- who make up about 20% of a population of 8.2 million and are
descendants of Palestinians who did not flee during the war over
Israel’s 1948 creation.
Odeh’s Joint List emerged as a direct response to a new law
introduced last year by the country’s hardline foreign minister, Avigdor
Lieberman, which raised the percentage of votes needed for
representation in the 120-member Knesset from 2% to 3.25% (about four
seats) with the aim of pushing out the small and divided Israeli Arab
parties.
Ironically that has not only encouraged the Israeli Arab parties to
combine but has seen a sharp increase in the number of Israeli Arabs who
have said they will vote in the elections on Tuesday after years of
growing boycotts and voter apathy over their sense of political
exclusion.
Odeh insists that the new law was not the only reason for the
political union but the fact that it was necessary to provide a voice
for a minority that has felt increasingly marginalised and under threat
during the recent period of right wing governments.
Most recently that has been represented by proposals for a Jewish
nation state law and by Lieberman’s plan to transfer Israeli-Arab
citizens en masse out of Israel into a new Palestinian state.
In this new political environment Odeh, a 40-year old lawyer, has
emerged as a significant and charismatic player, not least following his cool performance after coming under attack from the ultranationalist Lieberman in a television debate earlier in the campaign.
Despite Lieberman’s repeated attempts to bait Odeh, accusing him of
“representing terror groups” seeking to destroy Israel from within and
berating him as a “fifth columnist” who was not “wanted here” Odeh
politely noted that his party was polling well ahead of Lieberman’s.
“I’m very wanted in my homeland,” he added. “I’m part of the scenery. I
resemble it.”
For his part the leader of Hadash, the veteran socialist party in
Israel that emphasises Arab-Jewish cooperation, Odeh has now attracted a
political star status most obvious on the stump in Lod on Wednesday in
the repeated cries of “Ayman!” by shopkeepers and passersby keen to
shake his hand or be photographed with him.
“Everyone wants to vote this time,” says Ghassan Monayer, an importer and distributor of medical supplies.
“In the past people have not bothered because they felt their voice
did not count in a political system that ignored them. But the success
of Joint List and the predictions of how many seats that it will win has
given people hope.”
A pragmatic politician, Odeh explains that he believes his policies
will benefit both Jews and Israel’s significant Arab minority both in
strengthening its democracy and via greater Arab economic participation.
“We have two options,” he says. “We can be like Martin Luther King or
Malcolm X. We can be like Mandela or those who were motivated by racial
separation. We want a partnership between democratic Arabs and Jews who
believe in democracy because we cannot form a democratic alternative if
we are not democratic ourselves.
“But for the time being we have two things we need to deal with. We
have drawn up a 10-year programme of policies we want to work on:
women’s rights, local government and improved transport and economic
development of the Arab cities.
“I’ve drawn up a list of 80 issues and both Jews and Arabs will
benefit. An Arab who works and pays taxes rather than relying on social
security benefits everyone. On the other list is one item: ensuring
another rightwing government is not returned.
