The Knesset Ethics Committee issued on Monday, June 23, a series of disciplinary decisions against Hadash-Ta’al Knesset members Ayman Odeh, Aida Touma-Sliman and Ahmad Tibi following severe statements against the Israeli occupation forces during the war.
Odeh was punished with salary deduction and suspended from the plenum and Knesset committees for two weeks, among other things for statements that “what the army is doing in Gaza is murder and massacre.” Touma-Sliman and Tibi were suspended from the plenum and the Knesset for three days, following posts in which they referred to Israeli soldiers in Gaza as “murderers and occupiers.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres (right) meets with Hadash MK Ayman Odeh at the organization headquarters in New York, December 22, 2022 (Photo: United Nations)
Today, the Knesset House Committee will hold a hearing to discuss the potential impeachment of MK Odeh, expressing support for a comprehensive prisoner exchange deal involving the release of both Palestinian detainees and Israeli hostages. He also declared at a recent Partnership for Peace mass demonstration against war and occupation held in Haifa that “Gaza will triumph over the policy of war and destruction,” and that “the Palestinian people will defeat the occupation.”
The expulsion initiative was launched by Likud MK Avihai Boaron, who announced that he had secured 68 signatures from fellow Knesset members in support of the motion. Under Israeli law, a minimum of 90 votes out of 120 are required to approve the expulsion of a sitting MK. Should the motion pass, Odeh would be entitled to appeal the decision to the Israeli Supreme Court.
Odeh describes the effort to impeach him as “shameless political persecution that is clearly fascist.” “I call on the opposition members of the Knesset: Do not cooperate with this show. Do not be part of this anti-democratic move. Because today it is us and tomorrow it is you,” he says.
The far-right impeachment proceedings are only the latest in a “series of anti-democratic measures that the government is promoting under the auspices of the war: persecuting protesters and opponents of the regime, silencing the free media, and restricting freedom of expression,” Hadash asserts in a statement.
The far-right impeachment proceedings are only the latest in a “series of anti-democratic measures that the government is promoting under the auspices of the war: persecuting protesters and opponents of the regime, silencing the free media, and restricting freedom of expression,” Hadash asserts in a statement. An effort to impeach Hadash lawmaker Ofer Cassif over his public support for a South African motion accusing Israel of genocide before the International Court of Justice failed last February when it only garnered 85 votes in the plenum.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32723
