ODA (the Organization for Democratic Action - DA'AM in Arabic) defines itself as a workers’ party. This concept received its first incarnation on February 11, 2006, when 300 manual laborers and youth gathered at the Almaden Theatre in Haifa to open the Da’am election campaign.

“The idea of a workers’ party, first raised in our 2003 campaign, has today become a historical necessity, dictated by political and economic realities.” Thus says Asma Agbarieh, No. 1 on the party’s list. She refers to the structural changes that Israel’s economy has undergone as a result of privatization and globalization. These changes, says Agbarieh, have had a disastrous effect on the Arab population, whose main employment is in construction, agriculture and textiles.

Agbarieh is the only woman leading an election list. She says the workers accept her quite naturally, because of her day-to-day activity for the Workers Advice Center (WAC-MAAN), a non-profit association established by ODA in 1995. “Many of the WAC officials are women,” she says, “and the workers are used to this. Since the last elections, we have found jobs for more than 2000 people.”

Although 29 of its 55 candidates are Arab manual workers, men and women, ODA hopes that Jewish workers will join it. Agbarieh:  “The new economic reality is bringing Jews and Arabs closer. I'm very involved in the struggle with the Wisconsin Program. It's become a melting pot.”

On the political plane, ODA seeks a solution that would be acceptable to the Palestinian consensus. Nir Nader, its No. 2 candidate (and a well-known figure in the peace camp) explains: “We oppose the principle of unilateralism, because any arrangement has to be acceptable to the Palestinian people. Otherwise, it'll just be a temporary deal that will end in another Intifada. The failure to take the needs of the Palestinian people into account, and the lack of cooperation from Israel's side, contributed to the ascent of Hamas in the recent elections.”