Arab Knesset leader: Don't call me 'a demographic problem'
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Joint List Chair Ayman Odeh argues that calling for the preservation of a Jewish majority in Israel excludes Arabs from public discourse.
Ever since he was elected chairman of the Joint List, which is made up mainly of Arab parties, in January, Knesset member Ayman Odeh has set himself a goal to fight the delegitimization of the Arab population in Israel and attacks related to their citizenship by various right-wing sectors.
Since the March 17 general election and the Joint List’s electoral success — which garnered 13 Knesset seats and became the third-largest party in the parliament — Odeh has discovered that the challenges facing him are not confined only to coping with Israel’s right-wing groups that regard Arab Israelis as a menace. He also faces entire sectors in the Israeli left that share, according to him, the same offensive discourse.
During a Peace Now conference in Tel Aviv on July 24, Odeh astounded the participants by saying that while the right calls "death to Arabs," the left does the killing — which can be interpreted as "giving Arabs hell."
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Odeh cautions that if the left-leaning parties in general, and the Zionist Camp in particular, do not change their attitudes as well as the discourse toward the Arabs, the left will not be able to return to power and will completely lose its only chance of ever winning the support of Arab Israelis.
