In the winter of 2015, just before the elections for the 20th Knesset, Ayman Odeh, chairman of the predominantly Arab Joint List, was seen as the poster child of coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
"I am moved by the fact that this list of ours is not a separatist list and is supported by Jews," said Odeh in 2015 before vowing that his faction’s way was that of civility, democracy and non-violence.
Odeh reiterated that he vehemently disagreed with the conduct of his former colleague, firebrand lawmaker Haneen Zoabi - who was accused of undermining the government as well as inciting against the military and the state - and that he was in favor of Arabs volunteering for national service in lieu of military one.
What eventually bumped Odeh to the headline of every news outlet in 2015, was then-leader of the Jewish Home party Naftali Bennett, who remarked that crime in the Arab society is spiraling out of control.
Back then, the Joint List head slammed Bennett as having said his inciting remark due to declining poll numbers.
This is ironic, considering that Odeh's own declining polls numbers - according to which him and his faction would barely pass the electoral threshold if elections were held today - is most likely what pushed him to call on all Arabs serving in the Israel Police to “lay down their arms and resign” in a bizarre video address last week.
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Amir Khouri, an Israeli-Arab police officer who was killed while trying to stop a terror attack in Bnei Brak
(Photo: Courtesy)
Even after his consequent embarrassing explanation campaign, Odeh’s inciting call remains an immoral and indignant act.
Truth be told, this is not the first time he has done something so outrageous. It may be time to understand that the Joint List will never be headed by someone who truly seeks to expand and encourage Jewish-Arab partnership.
Odeh has proven himself to be the left-wing equivalent of far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir, with whom he clashed at the halls of a hospital last year - which evidently was a precursor for things to come.
In my 2015 interview with the Joint List leader, Odeh told me he studied law and language in Romania for five years. "Today I can recite songs in Romanian just like I can in Arabic,” he told me. It too bad this skill can’t help him explain who exactly will take the place of the Arab policemen he called on to resign.
Who exactly does he expect will fight the rising tide of crime, overwhelming the Arab sector, which he himself represents? Who will stand against the terrible violence and seemingly non-stop murders threatening Israel's Arab population?
Odeh has seemingly forgotten that only recently he called on the Israeli police to enter Arab local authorities with all its might in order to weed out the criminal elements plaguing the Arab society.
Israel's Jewish sector knows it has almost no influence on which Arab representatives are elected to the Knesset - and yet, the hope that a true Jewish-Arab party will one day be formed is still very much alive.
Odeh, though, will not be the one leading it. Instead he will be remembered as one of the extremist "politicians" like Zoabi the rest of us have no choice but to put up with until they inevitably fade away.