Top Arab MK blasts minister on Palestinian statehood

MK Ayman Odeh, who leads the Joint (Arab) List, responds to Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who said earlier in the day that the Palestinian people was a “recent invention.”

“There is a Palestinian nation that has the right to self-determination and a place under the sun,” Odeh tells the Haaretz conference.

He also criticizes Zionist Union MK Amir Peretz for his comments about Arabs posing a threat to Israel’s demographic makeup.

“Anyone who doesn’t view the Arab community as an integral part of the state won’t achieve peace with the Palestinians,” he says.

Odeh says he doesn’t think “there is one nation occupying another nation here. There is an establishment that is enslaving both nations, and must set both nations free from their servitude.”

— Marissa Newman