On US visit, Arab Israeli leader warns against Netanyahu’s new government

Chairman of Hadash-Ta'al Ayman Odeh met Dec. 9 with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York. Apparently, the meeting was not coordinated with Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan nor with the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, as customary with visits abroad of Knesset members. According to Israeli press, the meeting was coordinated with the Palestinian Authority, and with the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

At the meeting, Odeh handed over to Guterres a letter calling for his support in the battle against what he described as discriminating policies of successive Israeli governments vis-a-vis its Arab citizens. Odeh presented data on the number of murders in the Arab community and related that 104 Arab citizens have been murdered so far in 2022. He argued that Israeli authorities are not acting sufficiently to curb crime and violence in the Arab community, failing to provide Arab citizens with the basic right of personal safety. 

Odeh also expressed fears about the future Cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that the “incoming Israeli government will include [soon-to-be National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir, an adherent of Kahanism, a racist, Jewish supremacist political movement that has been designated a global terrorist by many international organizations including the US State Department.” 

Following the meeting, Odeh declared in a video, “I just left an important meeting with the UN secretary-general. We have had enough of false promises. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, is not our address. He was the minister of the police and was the most racist minister.  He does not represent us; we represent ourselves. This is another place for influence at the United Nations.”