Ayman Odeh

No one is speaking about the Arab citizens of Israel.

I remember, I used to get off a bus, and if there was someone sitting in the station, I remember thinking maybe they were from Shin Bet and came for me.

My goal is that Jews feel safe in their country.

Maybe for you in America, Dr. King has become boring because you hear about him so much. But for me, he is the man who has most inspired me.

I do not put red lines on the Arab Palestinian nation.

I don't accept the Zionist idea.

The Palestinian people choose how to fight against the occupation.

Every nation has a flag.

I have no doubt that the Palestinian Arab leadership made a mistake when it did not accept the partition plan in 1947, but I want to try to understand it.

A popular intifada is most beneficial for the Palestinians.

I have a lot of warm feelings towards the Palestinian people.

I come from a place of loving people - all human people.

Abu Mazen has no more hope for Netanyahu's approach. He's searching for a way to establish the Palestinian state. He doesn't want a militarized struggle with Israel.

I believe that the U.S. is the strongest country in the whole world and the country that supports Israel the most. I believe that it has the strength to push Israel towards peace.

In reality, civil rights are more important than national rights. They're the content, the day-to-day: work, life. But people are sensitive to national rights.

Occupation is the Palestinian people's tragedy, but also Israel's present. We must liberate both people from the occupation.

We in the Joint List are living proof that Arabs and Jews refuse to be enemies.

Incitement and anti-Arab hatred increased significantly during the Gaza conflict.

Arabs don't have to be the victims of the Jewish war between Lieberman and Netanyahu.

Attacking innocent people is always obscene.

According to Netanyahu, he should rule like a Caesar, and the Knesset should be run by the tyranny of the majority.

A man who dies, no matter how terrible his crime was, must be brought to burial.

The al-Aqsa compound is occupied territory that, as per the status quo, is administered by the King of Jordan and the Muslim Waqf.

When I read Malcolm X, I didn't agree with it all, but I inhaled it; I connected to his rage.

Eventually, I moved from a place of anger toward the Jews of Israel toward a place of embrace.

My biggest goal became to bring the weight of and the voice of the Arabs into the Israeli political sphere.

I am not some intellectual hoping to be understood a century from now. I'm a political leader. I have to stand in front of my community. If I am a metre too far out in front of the people, I'll lose them.

Netanyahu personally is leading the campaign against the Arabs.

I am very wanted in my homeland. I am part of the scenery, part of the region. I resemble it.

The U.S. is friends with dictatorial regimes, then invades places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and what happens afterwards is a catastrophe. In the place of their leaders, fundamentalist movements that use the name of Islam spring up, and all that's left is terror and bloodshed.

When I began my political career, I identified with Malcolm X.

Al-Aksa is a religious and national symbol.

Israel cannot be a democracy if it occupies land of other people.

I am an elected official; I was not elected by the Right.

Only the public that elected me can dismiss me.

The Right everywhere in the world gains more by forming a security agenda while the Left gains from a social agenda.

Just as Jews in the U.S. joined Martin Luther King, I'm sure hundreds of thousands of Jews will join the struggle for civil equality in Israel.

Our beautiful homeland is enough for us, Arabs and Jews. If we turn her into a battlefield, she will spit us out.

The Arab population does not want to turn inward and be isolated.

Martin Luther King fought for blacks, and democratic whites were with him.

If Jews don't come to Nazareth, Arabs don't go to Afula. There is fear on both sides.

The Knesset members - Jews and Arabs - don't represent the state of Israel. The government is the one that represents the state of Israel officially.

My people are from Haifa.

The struggle for equality is really a struggle for democracy, and that's why it's a struggle for all the population.

I agree with myself on 80 percent of things, but when I look at myself in the mirror in the morning, I still have inner debates about the right thing to do.

If America would really stand behind the two-state solution, they could make real pressure on Israel.

I was a member of the Haifa City Council when I was 23 years old, which made me the youngest city councilman in Israel.

Israel made peace with Egypt, the largest Arab State. There are militant Islamists there, but there is also law. There are agreements and also defense arrangements there.

Where there is law, and where there is government, there is security.

An Arab who works and pays taxes is good for everyone. An Arab who doesn't work and receives social security stipends is bad for everyone.