Many people in Israel don’t know the village of Iqrit exists. In fact, not much of it does exist anymore: If you follow a small, unmarked dirt path up a steep hill near the Israeli border with Lebanon, you’ll find only a modest church, a cemetery and impressive views.
It was to this all-but-abandoned Christian enclave that Ayman Odeh, now the leader of the third-largest faction in Israel’s newly elected Knesset, or parliament, recently traveled a hundred miles from Jerusalem to attend a Greek Catholic Easter celebration.
Although Odeh is Muslim, he was greeted like an old friend by a congregation of a few hundred mostly Arab Christians. Many have family ties to the village that date back to before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when it was evacuated and subsequently destroyed, and its occupants scattered throughout the region.
For decades, Israel’s Arab Christians have been campaigning to return to Iqrit, which is now . In Odeh’s newfound power, they see a politician who might be able to help.
“It’s a story that people can relate to,” said Odeh, clearly moved by their pleas.
Iqrit serves as a reminder both of Israeli Arabs’ fresh clout and the considerable expectations they have now placed on Odeh and his party. Despite its sizable presence in the Knesset, Odeh’s Joint List party — a — will not form a part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.
Even if Netanyahu did make an offer, it is unlikely the Joint List would take it. Many of the group’s supporters in Israel say their rights have been deeply threatened during Netanyahu’s time in office and say they felt insulted by his election-day warning that the nation’s Arab citizens “in droves.”
If, as many expect, Netanyahu forms a coalition that installs a right-wing government, the Joint List may struggle to make an impact in the Knesset. Its members may find it difficult to find significant allies even among Israel’s left-wing opposition, and some wonder whether the Joint List can last until the next election.
But for the time being, Odeh, 40, is using his visibility to highlight specific problems for the Arab community. Fresh to the Knesset, Odeh said he hopes not only to bridge the differences within the Israeli Arab population — which is mostly comprised of Muslims, Christians and Druze — but also to reach out to the Jewish community.
Iqrit is just one example of the challenges Odeh sees in the country. Recently, in a bid to draw attention to the plight of unrecognized, poorly serviced Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert, he led a four-day march from one such locality to the Israeli president’s home in Jerusalem. But the event received little attention from Israeli Jews.
Odeh knows he needs to make such issues important to all Israelis, not just to Arabs.
“My dream is to have a big march, from Nazareth to Jerusalem, the same way that Jesus went,” he said, adding, “It won’t succeed unless it’s a joint battle of Jews and Arabs together.” Referring to against the high cost of living, Odeh said next year he wants to organize a social justice protest of a “size never seen before.”
After the service in Iqrit, members of the congregation rushed to praise Odeh, a lawyer and longtime leader in the Hadash political party.
“He was always here before he was a member of the Knesset,” said Father Souhail Khoury, the priest at the church. Many of the Arabs whose families fled Iqrit in 1948 still live in towns and villages nearby.
Israeli Arab political movements have long been fractured and divided. Even some supporters in Iqrit expressed wariness about the Joint List, which formed this year when four small and polarized Arab political parties joined forces for the first time.
“When they gathered together for the election, I had a dilemma,” said Shadia Sbait, a guest at the service who voted for the Joint List. “I don’t think that all Arabs need to think the same.”
The Joint List’s decision to band together was a response to new voting rules that could have left the Arab parties without seats. Even with its new momentum, some doubt that the alliance can overcome the significant ideological differences between the parties.
For example, the party Odeh leads, Hadash, is a left-wing entity that makes a point of cooperating with Israeli Jews and focuses on social issues. Two other parties, Balad and the Islamic Movement, focus more on Palestinian nationalism and religious issues.
“The real split is in the politics,” said Sammy Smooha, a professor of sociology at Haifa University. “Will it be a nationalist struggle or a socioeconomic struggle?” he asked, adding that one major disagreement is about whether the Joint List should cooperate with Jewish parties.
Odeh said he was well aware of the differences.
“Every morning, I have to make sure that I agree with my way and what I’m doing,” he said. “I’ve chosen the way of Martin Luther King, but obviously there are others in the community who prefer the methods of Malcolm X.”
The lofty expectations placed on the Joint List may be an even bigger issue.
“The Joint List must come up with something new and give hope to the Arab community in Israel” or Arab voters will desert them, said Thabet Abu Rass, the co-director of the Abraham Fund, a group that works to promote cooperation between Jewish and Arab Israelis.
For now, Odeh said he is focusing on what unites Arabs — in particular, disputes over land. Earlier this week, Odeh and other Arab members of the Knesset met with leaders in the Arab village of Kafr Kanna, not far from Iqrit. There, a local man’s home had been demolished by the government , which Arab Israelis say authorities make difficult to obtain.
At the meeting, many expressed doubt that they would be able to find help through the Knesset. In the end, a decision was made to rebuild the house, even though it might be demolished again, and to plan a protest in Tel Aviv .
As the night dragged on, Odeh decided that rather than return to the Knesset, he would sleep with others in a tent by the house to protect it from further damage. Sometimes, he said, justice is more important than the law.
Ruth Eglash contributed to this report.
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