Ayman Odeh

Arab-Israeli lawyer and member of the Knesset; he is of Palestinian-Muslim descent

Ayman Odeh (Arabic: أيمن عودة, Hebrew: איימן עודה, born January 1, 1975 in Haifa) is an Israeli lawyer and politician. He is political leader both of Hadash ("New") and HaReshima HaMeshutefet / al-Qa'imah al-Mushtarakah ("The Joint List").[1]

Ayman Odeh
Faction represented in the Knesset
2015–2019Joint List
2019HadashTa'al
2019–Joint List
Personal details
Born (1975-01-01) 1 January 1975 (age 49)
Haifa, Israel

Early life & education

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Ayman Odeh was born in the year 1975. He was raised in the city of Haifa which is located within the neighbourhood of Kababir. His father was a construction worker.[2] Even though their family was Muslim but his father sent him to a Christian school.[3]

Ayman Odeh studied law at the University of Craiova located in Romania from 1993 to 1997. When he was studying in Romania then he took part in pro-Palestinian rallies. He also learned Romanian language and read the memoirs of various political thinkers and revolutionaries.

Career

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Odeh is an Arab Israeli and a former Muslim. He believes in socialism. He is in favour of Arab and Jewish Israelis collaborating, and is supporting Mizrahi Israelis, who in his opinion are neglected for Israeli Jews coming from the Western world. He also advocates weaponless Palestinian actions to reach its goals.[4]

He started his political career in 1998 by becoming a councillor of Haifa on behalf of Hadash. This lasted till 2005. Next year he became secretary-general.[5]

After several failing attempts to become a Member of Knesset in 2009 and 2013, Odeh has eventually succeeded in 2015.[6] The very same year he had become political leader of Hadash and of The Joint List (last one is a cooperation of the four mainly Arab parties in parliament).

References

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  1. NYT, 22 September 2019: Mr. Odeh leads the Joint List, the third-largest bloc in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and is chairman of the Hadash Party.
  2. Laub 2015.
  3. Hadash Knesset website (in Hebrew)
  4. Shrenzel, Israel (28 February 2015). "The joint Arab list: Careful who you vote for". Haaretz.
  5. "20th Knesset to be sworn in March 31, 2015". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 23 March 2015.
  6. תוצאות האמת של הבחירות לכנסת ה-20 [Actual results of the 20th Knesset elections] (in Hebrew). Israeli Central Elections Committee. Archived from the original on 2015-03-18.

Other website

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