As a ‘Dangerous’ Government Takes Over Israel, Top Arab Lawmaker Appeals to the World - Israel News -
WASHINGTON – When most Israeli left-wingers look at the incoming government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, they see nothing but an unmitigated disaster.
Hadash-Ta’al lawmaker Ayman Odeh, however, believes that what he acknowledges is a “deep crisis” also contains the seeds of a “major and historic opportunity for change” – in the form of a renewed and expanded Arab-Jewish political coalition.
“At times like these, we must see the silver lining from an unfortunate situation. There is a new horizon we haven’t seen before,” said Odeh, speaking with Haaretz in his Washington hotel suite ahead of addressing J Street’s annual conference last week.
He was the only Knesset member to show up. Labor lawmakers Merav Michaeli and Naama Lazimi had been slated to speak, but canceled their participation saying they feared that their absence could cause them to miss voting against the formation of the new government.
Despite being only 47, Odeh is one of the most senior Arab lawmakers in Israel. The Knesset member, who served as a councilman in Haifa prior to entering national politics, points to three major developments as the “foundation” of a new model of Jewish-Arab cooperation: the rise of Jewish supremacists like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, and their Religious Zionism alliance that won the third-highest number of seats in the November 1 election; the disappearance of Meretz after the left-wing party failed to pass the electoral threshold, for the first time in its 30-year history; and a new understanding among left-wing Jews that the Arab population in Israel must be taken into account.
Odeh said he began discussing such a renewal with figures in Meretz and Labor immediately after the election and promised that “in the next few months, the level of Jewish-Arab partnership will grow immensely.”
Part of Odeh’s lack of hand-wringing over the election results stems from the fact that he was never a fan of the outgoing government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, and does not mourn its dissolution. (His own party only won five seats and received less votes than the United Arab List that had been an unprecedented part of the outgoing governing coalition.)
“It was not a good government: it was very, very, very bad,” he said. “Externally, it was seen as the ‘government of change.’ But internally it was simply right wing – a government that pursued Netanyahu’s policies, just without Netanyahu himself. It damaged Palestinian citizens of Israel more than any government had before. … This is why I was in no rush to save the previous government. But even if I wanted too, it couldn’t happen.”
That last sentence is aimed at those who believe the predominantly Arab Joint List, which Odeh led before it fractured ahead of the election, could have stepped in and saved the government, preventing the return of Netanyahu.
“No one in the coalition even asked us to vote in their favor. Realistically, [Bennett’s] Habayit Hayehudi party was not going to sit with us. [Right-wing New Hope leader] Gideon Sa’ar didn’t want us. The idea that we could have come in and saved the day was a figment of people’s imagination. The people who brought down the government were members of the government. To blame opposition members for the fall of this government isn’t fair. It comes from disappointed people who are projecting their disappointment onto others.”
UN initiative
Odeh did not try to initiate meetings with White House officials or even members of Congress sympathetic to the Palestinian cause while he was in Washington. He did not attempt to lobby ahead of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, even though substantive power is being handed to Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and other extremists. According to Odeh, it will do little good.
“The U.S. government is not only not part of the solution – it is the biggest problem. Of course, there are good people here and there. But when it comes to the institution itself: the leadership that has shaped the policies as they are today, toward Palestinians and Israelis, they’ve always been a main part of the problem.”
As he sees it, “you have Trumpism and its policies: declaring the Golan Heights part of the State of Israel, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, ‘the deal of the century’ [then-President Donald Trump’s widely derided Mideast Peace Plan, unveiled in January 2020]. On the other side, you have the Democrats still pouring money into the Israel Defense Forces as it deepens the occupation and kills Palestinians. They will say they are ‘not pleased’ with the reality, but no more than that. No action is taken.”
Odeh apparently sees a better chance for salvation arriving from the United Nations. The day after this interview, he headed for New York, where he made headlines by meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He also delivered a letter declaring that Ben-Gvir’s appointment as national security minister, with a “high level of control over state-armed forces,” created an “extremely dangerous situation that requires international intervention to protect the lives of Arab-Palestinian citizens.”
In general, though, Odeh believes that “the world isn’t going to respect us if we just sit around and complain about the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir government. … I think it is pathetic to complain to the world without taking action ourselves.”
He hopes the new government will awaken a new spirit of opposition, and that “we might see half a million Arab and Jewish citizens standing together in protest in [Tel Aviv’s] Rabin Square.”
During his Washington visit, Odeh went for the first time to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying he had long admired “the Black American story” and its heroes.
“I get a lot of inspiration from Malcolm X because I connect with his anger. But I agree most with the head and heart of Martin Luther King Jr.,” he said.
Odeh continues to disdain the decision by United Arab List Chairman Mansour Abbas to be the first Arab political leader to join an Israeli coalition, putting the issue of Palestinian equality and independence below the more practical needs of Arab society in Israel. This proved to be the first crack in the solidarity of the Joint List, before it splintered completely prior to the election. (The third Arab party standing, the nationalist Balad, failed to cross the electoral threshold.)
“The racist hegemony has always wanted people like Mansour Abbas,” Odeh said. “They always wanted Arabs to say ‘Just throw a bone for me to take care of my own society.’ When we are blamed for focusing only on the big issues but not taking care of our own, the local smaller issues – that’s because they only want us to care about the small things. Tell me, please, when have you ever heard a Jewish interviewer critique a Jewish Knesset member for caring about Palestinian issues, or for talking about settlements or Gaza? I’ve never heard that. We are the only side being challenged by these questions.”
Asked if he was disheartened by the 14 seats won by the Religious Zionism alliance with its harshly racist, anti-Arab rhetoric, and now having Ben-Gvir – a disciple of the late Jewish supremacist Rabbi Meir Kahane – in the cabinet, Odeh said he doesn’t see it as a sea change in the Israeli electorate.
“I believe that those 14 seats are based on a truth that was there earlier. I remember how [Yisrael Beiteinu leader] Avigdor Lieberman once campaigned with a slogan saying that if Arabs aren’t loyal, they should be stripped of their citizenship. And that year [2009], his party won 15 seats. The same votes poured in for Ben-Gvir.”
He added, however, that he views Ben-Gvir and his compatriots in Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism and Noam – the parties that ran under the Religious Zionism umbrella last month – as a bigger threat than Lieberman and other right-wing politicians past and present.
“There is a difference,” Odeh said. “I think this group is more ideological and is really determined to execute its vision. That’s what’s dangerous.”