Profile: Ayman Odeh: Charismatic Arab politician emerges as surprising force in Israeli elections

Ayman Odeh, a charismatic Arab politician who has united behind him a new coalition of formerly squabbling Arab parties, is emerging as the most surprising force of the upcoming March 17 parliamentary elections in Israel.

Taking a short break from a hectic campaign, Odeh, head of the Joint List coalition, told Xinhua that he wants to form a board Arab-Jewish "alliance of the disadvantaged" that will look out for the rights of all underprivileged Israelis.

According to the latest opinion polls, the Joint List is poised to make a history by becoming the third largest party in the Knesset (parliament). It's predicted to win ten percent of the votes, which means 13 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

The 40-year-old lawyer is a familiar figure among the Arab community in Israel. His political career began at age 23, when he was elected member of the City Council of his hometown, Haifa, a Jewish-Arab city on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel.

He became well-known nationwide only last month, after a TV debate in which he calmly confronted Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, and head of the Bait Yehudi who openly calls to expel "disloyal" Arabs from Israel.

Lieberman then attacked Odeh, accusing his list of "representing terrorism." "Why aren't you standing for election in Ramallah rather than in the Israeli Knesset? Why are you even here? You're not wanted here," charged Liberman.

Odeh, who was the only Arab at the table, kept his cool, and stressed his massage -- the alliance is about "coexistence, equality and democracy" for all. "Arabs are part of this land, this is our homeland," he said, "We need to create a new discourse between our people."

In a twist of fate, Lieberman, the same ultranationalist, became a catalyst for the unification of the fractious Arab parties in January, after he initiated a law to raise the electoral threshold from two to 3.25 percent of the votes.

Many suspected that Lieberman's undeclared goal was to push out the small Arab parties, which right-wing politicians have deemed as a "fifth column" in Israeli politics.

However, the unprecedented alliance, which is composed of representatives from across the political map from communist to Islamists, is sweeping the Arab community.

Odeh believes that the newly-formed unity could greatly enhance Arab voter turnout.

The Joint List advocates coexistence and equal representation for Israeli Arabs, who constitute 20 percent of the population, and improve the ties between Jews and Arabs amid mounting tensions that are fueled by racism and nationalistic sentiments in the Israeli society.

"There's (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's National Camp and (Isaac) Herzog's Zionist Camp; we are the Democratic Camp," Odeh told Xinhua.

"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," he added in an interview with Israel's i24News TV.

"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," he said.

Born to a lower-middle class family in Haifa, Odeh's father was a construction worker and his mother a housewife. Both parents were adherent supporters of the Arab-Jewish Communist Party, which later became Hadash (the "Democratic Front for Peace") and is now part of the Joint List.

Odeh's political involvement started at a young age. "As a 13-year-old teen I already went to demonstrations and political rallies, despite my father's objection."

He is a father of three, two boys and a girl, and is married to Dr. Nardin Asallah, a gynecologist.

Arabs compose 20 percent of the Israeli population. They are descendants of the Palestinians who stayed on their land during the 1948 war of Israel's creation, in which Israel displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to neighboring Arab states. Today, many of them live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Many Palestinian citizens of Israel have family ties with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, territories which Israel seized during the 1967 Mideast war. They share their vision of ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.

"We are going to be the third largest faction in the parliament," Odeh said, "it will be impossible to continue to ignore us." Endit