The fascist motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset fails to pass on Monday evening, July 14, with only 73 out of the required 90 lawmakers voting in favor. 15 MKs voted against, and multiple opposition MKs boycott the vote. United Torah Judaism members boycotted the vote, as did Blue and White and most of Yesh Atid. Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu supported the motion. Labor, Ra’am, Hadash-Ta’al and MK Alon Shuster (Blue and White) voted against.
The vote requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass. Last month, the Knesset House Committee approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.
Responding to the failed effort to expel him from the Knesset, Odeh declares that “the despicable and fascist move against me has failed.” “We will stand firm against fascism, and fight for democracy, for equality, and for peace,” he tweets. “From here, we must liberate both peoples from the yoke of occupation. Because we were all born free!”
However, Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman warned that while “the attempt to expel Ayman Odeh has failed — but the attack on our political existence continues. They wanted to silence our voice that speaks out against the war, against the occupation, and for just peace.” “They tried to send a message: if you refuse to fall in line with the chauvinist consensus — you will be punished. But that message didn’t pass. Not today,” she writes on X.
Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh flashes a victory sign while speaking in the Knesset, ahead of a vote on a motion to expel him, July 14, 2025. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Earlier at a faction meeting in the Knesset, leaders of Hadash-Ta’al criticize the push to oust chair Odeh and calling the effort racist and anti-democratic and framing it as part of a broader battle against fascism, war and occupation. Odeh compares the struggle to the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution, whose anniversary was marked yesterday. “Just as the French won at the Bastille, we will win our Bastille,” he declares. “There is a real opportunity here to build a wide Arab-Jewish coalition against fascism and occupation,” he says. “Will fascism succeed in conquering the center, or will we succeed in recruiting it to stand with us? This is a fight between democracy and fascism, equality and oppression, between those who think only one people can live between the river and the sea instead of two,” Odeh says, urging allies to “strengthen, widen and deepen our coalition on the basis of equality and shared values.”
MK Ahmad Tibi, who heads the Ta’al party, called the impeachment effort “a racist and anti-democratic process.” Tibi slams the push to oust Odeh as deeply hypocritical, pointing out that some of the very ministers condemning him, such as racists Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have themselves called to “flatten” Gaza and worse. “Those who have condemned Odeh have also called for the murder of children, to destroy Gaza,” he says.
Monday afternoon, hundreds of Jews and Arabs protested in support MK Ayman Odeh outside the Knesset in Jerusalem. In the morning, protesters barricaded themselves in the Justice Ministry building in Jerusalem, protesting what they call “the coalition’s damage to the foundations of Israeli democracy.” The protesters also blocked the entrance and exit cuffless outside the Justice Ministry as dozens gathered in protest of the hearing on the potential dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and expel of MK Ayman Odeh from the Knesset. They were brutally removed by Border Police from inside the building following an attempt to barricade themselves inside. One protester has been detained so far, according to a group of lawyers that represent detained anti-government demonstrators.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32831
