Ayman Odeh

Ayman Odeh

Ayman Odeh, Arab: 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").

Odeh is an Arab Israeli and a former Muslim. He adheres socialism and isn't considered a hardliner. 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.

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.

After several failing attempts to become a Member of Knesset in 2009 and 2013, Odeh has eventually succeeded in 2015. 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

• Bio at Knesset Website

Current political leaders in the Knesset

Mansour Abbas (The Joint List - Ra'am)  • Naftali Bennett (Yamina - New Right)  • Yael Cohen-Paran (Green Party)  • Aryeh Deri (Shas)  • Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism - Degel HaTorah)  •   Benny Gantz (Blue and White - Israel Resilience)  •   Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz)  • Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid-Telem - Yesh Atid)  • Orly Levy (Gesher)  • Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu)  • Ya'akov Litzman (United Torah Judaism - Agudat Yisrael)  • Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud)  • Ayman Odeh (The Joint List - Hadash)  • Amir Peretz (HaAvoda)  • Rafi Peretz (HaBayit HaYehudi)  • Mtanes Shehadeh (The Joint List - Balad)  • Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina - Tkuma)  • Ahmad Tibi (The Joint List - Ta'al)  • Moshe Ya'alon (Yesh Atid-Telem - Telem)