US senators issued a joint statement Sunday, July 13, strongly condemning efforts by the Knesset to expel Hadash lawmaker Ayman Odeh, calling it an assault on democratic principles. The Knesset is scheduled to vote today, on Monday, on whether to eject Odeh. The motion requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 members to pass.
Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch and Chris Van Hollen defended Odeh, the chairman of the chair of Hadash-Ta’al after lawmakers voted to advance his impeachment. Also, the Vice-President of the Bundestag Bodo Ramelow and 20 members of Die Linke parliamentary faction, sent a letter in solidarity with Odeh. In addition, Ian Brossat, a member of the French parliament and leading activist of the Communist French Party published an open letter against the eviction.
MK Ayman Odeh and US senator Bernie Sanders (Photo: Zo Haderekh)
“We strongly condemn the effort to expel MK Ayman Odeh from the Israeli Knesset,” the US senators said. “If Israel is going to call itself a democracy, it must tolerate peaceful dissent.” The senators linked the expulsion effort to Odeh’s calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
“For over a decade, MK Odeh has been a leading advocate for peace, justice, and Jewish-Arab partnership,” they said. “The current expulsion effort is a direct response to MK Odeh’s outspoken and brave calls.” The lawmakers described the move as sending “a chilling message to millions of Palestinian citizens of Israel: that their representation is conditional and their rights revocable.” “We stand in solidarity with MK Odeh and with the right of all lawmakers, Arab and Jewish, to speak freely and without fear of political retribution,” they said.
Mazen Ghnaim, Sahknin mayor and chairman of the Committee of Arab Municipal Leaders, which represents 67 local authority heads, wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday says the impeachment constituted a “dangerous political move that harms the democratic legitimacy of Arab citizens in Israel and undermines the foundations of proper parliamentary representation.” “Beyond the specific harm to MK Odeh, we express genuine concern about a dangerous precedent that could in the future be used to disqualify and remove heads of local authorities, council members, and even new candidates from the Arab community – solely due to their political positions or their courageous stand alongside their constituents. This move creates an atmosphere of threat and persecution, expanding the boundaries of silencing at the expense of the democratic space,” Ghnaim wrote.
“Another serious consequence is the damage to motivation for participating in elections. A growing sense of alienation, distrust, and despair may deepen the trend of voter abstention within the Arab public – a destructive outcome for Israeli democracy as a whole,” Ghnaim agreed.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, an NGO whose chairman, Dr. Hassan Jabareen, represented Odeh in the two Knesset Home Committee hearings, argued on Sunday that the hearings “exposed the political nature of the campaign: rather than examining the legality of Odeh’s social media post, MKs from both coalition and opposition parties used the sessions to incite, threaten, and delegitimize Palestinian representation in the Knesset.”
It included examples from the hearings, including by committee chair Likud MK Ofir Katz, “While the soldiers are fighting on seven fronts, the eighth front needs to be cleared, and Ayman Odeh is our eighth front,” and “you won’t be in the Knesset – we’ll stay, and you won’t. Not in the Knesset, not in Israel;” by Likud MK Osher Shekalim, who stated, “In another country, you’d be shot by firing squad;” by Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kreuzer, who threatened Odeh that “these are your final years as a citizen of the State of Israel;” and by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, who said, “Keep shouting from prison. And we’ll destroy Gaza too.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32831
