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.