Standing with MK Ayman Odeh

Photo Credit: Mati Milstein

Arab citizens of Israel deserve full equality, political representation, and respect. Democracy means that no citizen is silenced or expelled. But that’s exactly what is happening to MK Ayman Odeh, the leader of the largest joint Arab-Jewish party in the Knesset, right now.

Odeh has been a Member of Knesset, and a leader in the fight for Arab-Jewish equality for more than a decade. He has been the standard-bearer for the idea that all citizens in Israel deserve basic, equal rights. Just after October 7, he called for peace in the New York Times in an opinion piece titled “What it Takes to Choose Life Over Revenge”: 

…we are also the ones who know, deep in our bones, which are made of the soil of this land, that the answer is peace. The only way we can fulfill our responsibility to the nation of our youngest ones — and to ourselves — is to recognize the nation of Palestine and the nation of Israel and to establish a State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel.

Members of the House Committee have already voted to impeach Ayman, and he will face a final vote in the Knesset next week. To impeach him, a full 90 out of 120 members will need to vote “yes”. That means that segments of the opposition will need to vote with the far-right coalition. 

At the New Israel Fund, we are standing with Ayman because we stand for and with any and all Israeli citizens seeking to build a shared future for all. 

Read VP of Public Engagement Libby Lenkniski’s article urging the Israeli opposition not to impeach Ayman, and instead to act more like Brad Lander, New York City’s Comptroller, who endorsed and campaigned for Zohran Mamdani despite their differences of opinion.