According to exit polls, the Joint Arab List is the third largest party in the Israeli elections for the 22nd Knesset. This means that if the two biggest parties – the Likud and Blue and White form a merger government, as Liberman demanded, the Joint Arab list will head the opposition.

That means that the head of that list, MK Ayman Odeh, will enjoy a personal security detail around the clock provided by the Shin Bet (General Security Services, also known as the Shabak). He will also receive confidential security updates.

Odeh, who has called Netanyahu a “psychopath” and said that bringing the Prime Minister down is a national priority, has a long history with the Shin Bet.

This was uncovered in an article in the New Yorker where the Arab MK recalled various interrogations over security related issues. When Odeh was sixteen-years-old, the Shin Bet called him in to be interrogated. “For us, the Shin Bet was the most terrifying thing imaginable. It was a name you only whispered. When my parents heard about it, they almost collapsed. They tried to bolster my spirits, but they were also yelling, ‘What did you do?’ I was both terrified and proud. If the Shin Bet was bothering to call me in, it meant that I was a serious patriot” Odeh told the publication.

At the Shabak offices in Haifa, Odeh was interrogated by two investigators. The agents clarified to Odeh that hey had compiled a comprehensive file on him. “They knew everything about me,” he noted. “They told me I was working against the State of Israel.”

“I was called three more times by the Shin Bet. They never hit me” Odeh continued. He explained the paranoia that the Shin Bet instilled into him saying: “I had the sense the Shin Bet was watching me no matter where I went. When I went to the bus station and I saw some guy in sunglasses, I just assumed he was Shin Bet.”

After the third or fourth interrogation, Odeh said that he fell into a deep depression adding: “I’d lost the joy of life”.