Israel’s Arabs Are Having a Political Moment
With the country headed to a third election, Jewish politicians may yet realize the potential of the Arab bloc.
Arabs vote, too.
Photographer: Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images
On Sept. 22, five days after Israel’s second round of 2019 elections, Ayman Odeh, who heads the consortium of Israeli Arab parties, tweeted in Hebrew a verse from the Book of Psalms (118:22). “The stone that the builders rejected,” he quoted, “has become the chief cornerstone.”
The tweet was clever, for the playfulness it combined with the seriousness of its message. Muslim Israeli Arabs, for whom the Koran and not the Bible is a sacred text, do not often quote biblical verses. But Odeh’s tweet was meant to suggest that something had shifted in the political balance of power. “You have long rejected us in coalition negotiations,” the quote was widely understood to imply, “but now we have become the cornerstone.”