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.
