AYMAN ODEH

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

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

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.

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

No one is speaking about the Arab citizens of Israel.

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

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

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.

Only the public that elected me can dismiss me.

Al-Aksa is a religious and national symbol.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

My people are from Haifa.

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

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