Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh, speaking from just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, declared that Israel's capital would one day become the main city of "Palestine."
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"On these walls, the flag of Palestine will be hoisted and Jerusalem will be the capital of reconquered Palestine," he told the Kan public broadcaster amid heightened security tensions highlighted by a flag march in the city by Israel nationalists and cross-border arson attacks carried out by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
"Our people will shame them and they will withdraw from these places," he said, referring to the parade participants, who the Israel Police said numbered approximately 5,000.
Earlier in the day, Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas, whose faction makes up one of the eight parties in Israel's new coalition government, denounced the flag march as an "unrestrained provocation."
Odeh has been vocal in his opposition to the new coalition, declaring it a "bad government." He added that "ministers from the extremist right will hold many ministerial portfolios, such as Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) , Gideon Sa'ar (New Hope), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu), Zeev Elkin (New Hope) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu)."
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He maintained that the new government would "harm the Arabs of Jerusalem and the Negev and will not represent any sort of ideal of Judeo-Arab cooperation due to the inclusion of Ra'am.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
