Ayman Odeh arguably delivered the headline of the election on August 22 when he told Yediot Aharonot's Nachum Barnea that he would be willing to take his party into a coalition led by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz under key conditions.Odeh’s conditions include a peace proposal, annulling the Nation-State Law, stopping Arab house demolitions, building a new Arab city, building a hospital in an Arab city, and taking steps to limit crime, including confiscating illegal weapons, in the Arab towns and villages. Sources close to Odeh called the interview historic, and said it was the first time an Arab party leader in Israel had ever expressed willingness to enter the coalition before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved. The sources said Odeh has also said recently that he could recommend that Gantz form the next government after not recommending any candidate after the last two elections.Another possibility is that instead of joining a coalition, which would involve taking on collective responsibility for the government's decisions, the Joint List could reach an agreement with Blue and White on being part of a blocking majority that would prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a government.But Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi said there was also a price tag for that: NIS 64 billion over 10 years for development in the Arab sector. He said he also wanted Arabs to be recognized as an official minority community, and to have a number of laws canceled including one that banned Palestinians from moving into Israel via family reunification.
