Hadash MK Ofer Cassif was removed again by Knesset guards from the Knesset podium on Wednesday, May 28, after accusing far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being responsible for bombing Palestinian children in Gaza. Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana (Likud) who ordered the guards to remove Cassif, also ordered them to forcibly remove the next speaker as well, Labor MK Naama Lazimi, after her “speaking time ended.”
“Silence means consent”, MK Ofer Cassif during a demonstration against the war and genocide near the Gaza border, on last Saturday, May 25, 2025 (Photo: Zo Haderekh)
On past week, MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) was forcefully removed from the podium in the Knesset on May 21, after a shouting match with far-right coalition members which he criticized to prolong the Gaza war. He accused the occupation army of the mounting dead Palestinian children toll. “It is only a war on innocent people, a massacre,” he said.
“A majority of both Israelis and Palestinians want the ongoing war to end”, MK Odeh said on Wednesday at the Israel Bar Association annual conference in Eilat. “When I saw the number 600 days of war, I actually recalled the Six Day War,” Odeh said. “Because back then, both in ’48 and ’67, one people went out happy and felt victorious, and another people felt defeated. But today, if you ask most Israeli citizens and most Palestinians, they will say they wish the days since October 7 had never happened. The majority on both sides do not want this situation,” he said.
Odeh emphasized what he said was the futility of the bloody and prolonged war and the failure of the Zionist political leadership. “What is the political achievement? Please tell me. There is none. Therefore, after this war, we must tell the right wing, ‘Your path has failed. You have no vision, no direction.’ This is the right thing to say, and it must be said in the clearest way possible.”
In his remarks, the Hadash MK highlighted the human perspective he has maintained throughout: “I do not want a single child, neither Jewish nor Palestinian, to be killed; that is the main thing. There are those who want me to see only one side; that will not happen. I will see both sides, the pain of the Israelis and the pain of the Palestinians.”
Democrats party chairman Yair Golan also participated in the conference in Eilat. He created an uproar last week when he said, “A sane country does not kill children as a hobby,” and was unable to deliver remarks at a conference in Beersheba on Tuesday due to heckling from fascists. “I have never spoken against Israeli soldiers and never will. On the contrary, IDF soldiers, through their heroism, have already achieved an extraordinary accomplishment in May-June of last year. We completed the elimination of Hamas’s military power, and a diplomatic move should have been built upon that to free the hostages and establish a broad regional agreement,” he said.
Regarding Netanyahu, Golan said, “Instead of fighting against lies and incitement, he amplifies them. This is an organized incitement. The Israeli public must mobilize and push for early elections. Elections are the order of the day to save the country.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32686
