Member of Knesset and head of the Hadash-Ta’al parliamentary faction Ayman Odeh was forcefully removed on Wednesday, March 20, from the Knesset floor after saying that what the Israeli occupation army does in Gaza is a massacre.

MK Odeh forcefully removed from the Knesset floor, Wednesday, March 20, 2024 (Footage: Knesset Channel)

He was taken off the Knesset podium by a Likud MK. Odeh was removed for demanding the rest of Israel’s opposition to do its job and criticize the massacre and starvation Israel is inflicting on Gaza.  He began by quoting a statement made on Wednesday by former Health Minister and Israeli ambassador to France, Yael German, on the hunger in Gaza.

“I appeal to you to be a real opposition against this government and its crimes in Gaza,” he told the Knesset plenum. “What the army is a crime, it’s killing, it’s murder, it’s a massacre,” said.

According the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH), between the afternoon of March 19 and noon on March 20, 104 Palestinians were killed and 162 Palestinians were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and noon on March 20, at least 31,923 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 74,096 Palestinians were injured, according to MoH in Gaza.

Furthermore, on Wednesday, protestors against the far-right government arrived at the entrance to the Knesset, tie themselves to the fences, and were blocked by cops. The police said it had arrested five protestors 

Inside the Knesset, earlier on the same day, protesters handed out “dismissal letters” to far-right and racist coalition lawmakers. These include Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who told the uncle of a victim at Reim in October 7 to “get out of my sight” while walking down a Knesset hallway. “Today is the day of dismissals. This entire coalition is dismissed,” said Roni Neumann, whose niece Rotem Neumann was murdered by Hamas at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

In Tel-Aviv, family members of the hostages and their supporters blocked a main highway during rush hour Wednesday morning in a protest calling on the government to reach a deal to free the captives being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, activists calling for immediate elections demonstrated outside the homes of coalition lawmakers. Protests were held at the homes of senior Likud MK Edelstein in Herzliya Pituach, Education Minister Yoav Kisch in Hod Hasharon, and the homes of MK Gila Gamliel and Boaz Bismuth in Tel Aviv, Danny Danon in Raanana, and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman in Rehovot.