New Knesset member Yousef Jabareen (No. 10 on the Joint List, the unified slate of predominantly Arab parties) left the plenary hall, together with his colleagues in the faction, before the national anthem was sung at the swearing-in ceremony of the 20th Knesset. Jabareen, who has a doctorate in law and specializes in human and minority rights, was until recently a senior lecturer at Haifa University. He told Al-Monitor that for as long as he can remember, he has always walked out of any ceremony in which the national anthem was sung. In his eyes, the Hatikva is another Zionist symbol that excludes the Arab public.

Jabareen, 43, was born and bred in Umm al-Fahm, where he still resides. He completed his doctoral studies at Georgetown University in Washington, where he conducted a comparative research project of the legal status of African-Americans in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, and that of Israeli Arabs. He found that the gaps between Jews and Arabs in Israeli law and legislation are much deeper than he had thought.

In his first interview with Al-Monitor, Jabareen states that in no other country in the world that boasts about its democracy is there such a large volume of discriminatory legislation against a national minority.

Al-Monitor:  Knesset member Jabareen, do you already know what you will talk about in your maiden speech to the Knesset?