MK Ayman Odeh Asserts Elections Were a Huge Success for Joint List

Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) declared yesterday (Tuesday, March 3) that the alliance of Hadash, Balad, Ta’al and Ra’am had realized a “huge achievement” in Monday’s general elections for the Knesset after nearly-final results suggested it won 15 seats in the 120-seat parliament. The election results showed that more than 530,000 voter, Arabs and Jews, cast their ballots for the Joint List.

Photograph of Ayman Odeh displayed during a televised election results forecast immediately following the closing of the polls at 10:00 pm on Monday night, March 2

Photograph of Ayman Odeh displayed during a televised election results forecast immediately following the closing of the polls at 10:00 pm on Monday night, March 2 (Source: Screen shot from Channel 13)

“Brothers and sisters, you have created an historic day,” Odeh said. “From the first elections in 1949 until today, we [the Arab public in Israel] have not received this degree of support and this number of seats in the Knesset. Odeh maintained that the Joint alliance will “strengthen the left and the Jewish-Arab alternative.”

MK Odeh related how the Joint List received votes from many thousands of Jews and contended that the alliance needs to become “the principled alternative for the entire Israeli political map.” “I call on left-wingers not to despair or soul-search, but rather to think about partnership and a principled alternative,” he said, adding that he’s talking about “real peace and democracy, authentic equality between Arabs and Jews, and social justice for all marginalized persons.”

Odeh accused Blue & White of failing to become “an alternative to the right” and instead made a concerted and consistent effort to reach out to right-wing Zionist voters by adopting right-wing positions and distancing itself from Arab voters; this in contrast to the two previous elections in April and September 2019. For example, Odeh recalled how Blue & White head MK Benny Gantz said in an interview in late February that party’s electoral goal would be to establish a government based on “a Jewish majority.”

Related: Israel Election Results: Joint List Alliance Achieves Historic Gain