SELF-DETERMINATION BEYOND STATEHOOD - TOWARDS CIVIL RIGHTS

Ayman Odeh
Head of the Joint List, Member of Knesset, Israel

A country for all its citizens
“The first time Palestinian citizens of Israel displayed this mode of proactive political agency to such an impressive degree was back in 2006-2007 when the Palestinian community in Israel produced “future vision” documents, such as “The Haifa Declaration,” published by Mada al-Carmel - Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa, and “The Democratic Constitution,” published by Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, describing how Israel can and must change to be a country for all its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike. The Joint Arab List is not a strategic political platform (not yet, at least), but political survival dictated electoral unity, since several of these parties did not reach 3.25 per cent in the previous Knesset election. The significance of this historic political initiative by Palestinian citizens of Israel far exceeds the Joint Arab List's 13 Knesset seats. The move brought greater focus to a potent strategic asset of the Palestinian struggle on both sides of the nonexistent Green Line; it highlighted, yet again, a still under-utilised source of Palestinian political agency.” (Sam Bahour, November 2015)

Moderation Viola Raheb, University of Vienna, senior fellow of Bruno Kreisky Forum

Ayman Odeh is an Arab Israeli lawyer and politician. He is a member of the Knesset, and currently serves as leader of Hadash and head of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties; Hadash, Balad, the United Arab List and Ta'al.