L’analista política israeliana Lily Galili publica avui mateix a Israel News aqueix article “Ayman Odeh, the surprise of the 2015 campaign“, on analitza el paper rellevant que està adquirint el lider de la candidatura unitària àrab. Odeh fa un discurs novedós centrat en un missatge a l’estil de Pablo Iglesias o Alexis Tsirpas contra “la casta”, en els seu cas els “tycoons”, apel·lant a la confluència de jueus i palestins en l’objectiu d’una nova societat compartida.
Head of joint Arab-Israel party tells i24news: Jews and Arabs must unite against the real enemy: tycoons
The emergence of Ayman Odeh, the 40-year-old head of the new Joint Arab List, is by all criteria the most surprising element in the 2015 election campaign. It’s not just that he heads the first-ever joint list of Arab parties that might easily become the third biggest faction in the Knesset; it’s mostly the personality of Odeh, the first Arab politician to make an immediate breakthrough into Israeli mainstream media and to get the attention of many Jews in Israel. Arab parties and their leaders are usually treated by the Israeli Jewish public as somewhere between irrelevant and suspicious, sometimes even as enemies, or, as FM Avigdor Lieberman prefers to label them – a fifth column.
Ayman Odeh has changed that. Totally unknown to the Jewish public until now, in one short month Odeh has acquired unprecedented status. On the left, he is the bearer of a new hope of real cooperation between Jews and Arabs; on the right, he poses a new challenge. Unlike the notorious, provocative Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi, Odeh cannot be easily labeled or dismissed. Or, in the words of Judy Nir-Moses-Shalom, wife of Likud Minister Sylvan Shalom, “He’s really dangerous… he projects something every Israeli can relate to.” By Israeli she meant “Jew”, and she’s right. There is nothing more threatening to any establishment than new alliances that threaten comfortable systems of divide and rule.
Odeh, a lawyer and activist in Hadash, Israel’s only Arab-Jewish party, was born in the Mediterranean port city of Haifa to a communist family. When riots by Israeli Arabs erupted in 2000, he was a member of the Haifa Municipal Council. His advisers are eager to tell i24news that at the time he sent condolences not only to Arabs killed in those riots, but also to the family of a Jewish victim, a meaningful gesture in keeping with his ideology. He still lives in Haifa, a mixed city with a large Arab minority. His wife is an obstetrician; he no longer defines himself as a communist, but rather as “socialist and democratic” (“don’t write social-democrat, it’s different”, he insists).
It’s way too early to judge Odeh’s performance, but his discourse is certainly refreshing. He tends to talk in universal terms of justice and equality, rather than in nationalist, divisive jargon. “Between the National Camp and the Zionist Camp, I want to establish the Democratic Camp”, he tells i24news; “I cannot do it alone and don’t want to do it with Arabs only; I want to do it with and for Jews, as well. Together. In the 2015 elections, the word ‘peace’ has become obsolete: I’m afraid that in next elections the term ‘democracy’ will be obsolete, as well.”
Last week, Odeh attended a Jerusalem election event in Hebrew. Usually too marginal to be noticed in the endless chain of events, Odeh’s event drew an impressive presence of world media.
Odeh has star quality, but it’s not just that; it’s also the unintentional help he keeps getting from FM Avigdor Lieberman, who will go down in history as the fore-father of the joint Arab list as a response to the law he pushed through to block Arab representation altogether by raising the electoral threshold. Now Lieberman is partly responsible for Odeh’s international glory. In a recent TV debate, Lieberman struck out at Odeh: “Why did you come to this studio and not to a studio in Gaza? Why aren’t you standing for election in Ramallah rather than in the Israeli Knesset? You’re not wanted here.” Despite his obvious surprise, Odeh remained calm. “As it says in the Book of Proverbs – ‘whoever digs a pit will fall into it’”, he responded; “I’m very wanted in my Homeland. I’m part of the scenery, I resemble it”. And the subtext whispered, “unlike you, the new immigrant” from the FSU.
The overtly racist remark turned out to be an electoral gift: in a poll conducted after the debate, the Arab list went up to 13 seats (of 120 in the Knesset). “ I hope one seat will come from Jewish voters,” Odeh told i24news, “but it’s not only to them I want to talk; I want to talk to the weakened lower classes, those now represented by Aryeh Deri and Moshe Kahlon; we’ll be totally dedicated to them. I feel close to them and want to sign a pact with them. While we fight over the definition of Israel as a Jewish state or a state of all its citizens, Israel is neither; it is the state of its tycoons who rule us all.” Odeh left the recent Jerusalem gathering early in order to get to a meeting with parents of handicapped children in the small, all Jewish town of Raanana.
Odeh plans to do all of the above from the opposition. Joining the ruling coalition is out of the question at this point. Not that the big parties are after him; Israel has had several Arab ministers, but all from Jewish Zionist parties. Arab parties are still a taboo. For Odeh, it’s not even something to theoretically consider. “I cannot vote for a budget reserved for settlements in the occupied territories instead of for the weakest in society, I cannot be part of a government bombing Gaza; I cannot lead a comfortable life while a few kilometers away people suffer deeply”.
Lily Galili is a feature writer, analyst of Israeli society and expert on immigration from the former Soviet Union. She is the co-author of “The Million that Changed the Middle East.”
Post Scriptum, 10 de desembre del 2015.
Ayman Odeh no va ser pas la sorpresa de les eleccions israelianes d’enguany, ni tampoc ha destacat per un posicionament diferent al dels diferents liders palestins que han volgut succeir Yasser Arafat, la negacio del dret a l’autodeterminacio delpoble jueu. Tampoc ha alcat la seva veu per deslegitimar la intifada en curs contra els jueus, dita dels ganivets, i malgrat aixo ha estat convidat a fer una gira promocional pels EUA on s’ha autocomparat amb Martin Luther King, (com tambe ho feu Arafat), amb la pretensio -seva i dels seus amfitrions- que algun dia pugui ser un interlocutor valid per a un proces de pau veritable.
Atesa la incapacitat dels dirigents palestins per negociar amb Israel en termes de reconeixement mutu i la precarietat del lideratge de Mahmud Abbas al front de l’ANP, Odeh es una flor en el desert als ulls del mon occidental que vol, a qualsevol preu, forcar a Israel a acceptar les condicions dels dirigents palestins que realment suposen la destruccio de l’estat hebreu.
Post Scriptum, 21 de setembre del 2016.
Ayman Odeh, aprofitant la desorientació i l’autoculpabilització de l’esquerra israeliana aposta per fer un front comú per abatre Netanyahu segons assenyala encertadament Andrew Tobin en aqueix articlepublicat avui a The Times of Israel.
Post Scriptum, 14 de març del 2020.
A les eleccions del 2 d’aqueix mes, la Llista Àrab Unida ha assolit quinze escons a la Knesset, el millor resultat mai obtingut per una candidatura pro-palestina que ha arreplegat uns vint mil vots de jueus antisionistes d’esquerres, segons estima Haaretz. Per la seva part, l’editorial del dia 5 del Jerusalem Post titula així: “The big winner in Israel’s elections is the Joint List”.
Post Scriptum, 5 de juliol del 2020.
L’editorial d’ahir del Jerusalem Post acaba amb el miratge d’Ayman Odeh com esperança de líder àrab israelià dialogant després d’haver participat a l’escenificació de l’entesa entre Fatah i Hamàs contra el pla d’extensió de la sobirania israeliana a part de Judea i Samària: Ayman Odeh chose to show solidarity with a terrorist.
Post Scriptum, 7 d’abril del 2021.
La Llista Àrab Unida ha baixat a sis diputats a la Knesset arran de les eleccions del proppassat 23 de març, degut a la presentació del partit Raam, (islamista), disposat a arribar a acords amb els partits jueus. Això ha fet que alguns dels electes de la candidatura encapçalada per Ayman Odeh hagin optat per radicalitzar les seves posicions antisionistes (a iniciativa del seu diputat jueu Ofer Cassif) al mateix moment de prendre posessió dels seus escons: A la Knesset, les élus arabes israéliens jurent de lutter contre « l’occupation. Au cours de leur prestation de serment, des députés de la Liste arabe unie ont juré de lutter contre “l’apartheid” et le “racisme” en remplacement de l’engagement traditionnel.”
Post Scriptum, 16 de setembre del 2022.
Avui, a The Times of Israel: “La Liste arabe unie éclate en deux partis, rebattant les cartes en dernière minute. Incapables de se mettre d’accord, Hadash-Taal et Balad font cavaliers seuls, comme Avoda et Meretz, en dépit des appels à l’unité de Lapid. Cela pourrait profiter à Netanyahu.”
Post Scriptum, 17 de maig del 2023.
Ahir, a The Times of Israel: “Arab political leader Ayman Odeh says he won’t run for office again. Surprise announcement by head of erstwhile Joint List catches some colleagues off guard, as MK said looking to make room for new blood — or possibly run for Haifa mayor”.
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