During his law studies in Romania, he took part in pro-Palestinian rallies, learned Romanian, and read the memoirs of various political thinkers and revolutionaries.

[citation needed] Odeh met his wife Nardine Aseli, a gynecologist, at the wake for her 17-year-old brother who was killed in 2000 at the start of the Second Intifada.

Analysts credited the charismatic Odeh for giving the Arab political union a more moderate, pragmatic face.

[11][12] In an interview with The Times of Israel, Odeh discussed the Joint List's social agenda, including a 10-year plan to tackle issues pertinent to the Arab sector, such as employment of women, rehabilitation of failing regional councils, recognition of unrecognized Bedouin communities in the Negev, public transportation in Arab towns, and eradication of violence.

I am part of the nature, the surroundings, the landscape", contrasting his birth in Israel with Lieberman's immigration from the former Soviet Union.

[19] Odeh has also expressed strong support for increasing recognition of Mizrahi culture and Arab Jewish history in official Israeli and Palestinian discourses; in a widely cited speech to the Knesset plenum in July 2015, MK Odeh argued that the State of Israel has systematically discriminated against and suppressed the culture of Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab and Muslim lands (who make up the majority of the Israeli population [citation needed]) in order to feed the idea of a natural separation between Jews and Arabs.

[21] In February 2016, Odeh considered resigning from the Knesset to show his protest against a controversial MK suspension bill.

[24] On 18 January 2017, Odeh was allegedly shot by a sponge-tipped bullet in the forehead by Israel Police as he protested against the demolition of homes in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran.

[26] The British Forensic Architecture, led by Eyal Weizman of Goldsmiths, University of London, which analyzed video evidence of the incident strongly suspected that Odeh had been hit by a sponge-tipped bullet because 47 seconds of video had been redacted – precisely the time during which Odeh was injured.

[27] In November 2024, Odeh was ejected from the Knesset after accusing Prime Minister Netanyahu of being a "serial killer of peace."

During his speech, Odeh recounted the story of a man whose rented apartment was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike while he was obtaining birth certificates for his newborn twins, killing both infants and their mother.