Knesset member Ofer Cassif of the Hadash-Ta’al party was suspended from parliamentary activity for two months by the Knesset Ethics Committee on Wednesday. The decision came after a wave of complaints were submitted regarding Cassif’s statements criticizing Israeli military actions in Gaza. His suspension covers attendance at both plenum sessions and committee meetings from October 19 to December 19, and his salary will be reduced for two weeks. One major source of contention was his public call for the International Criminal Court to investigate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for alleged war crimes.
In its ruling, the committee accused Cassif of engaging in an ongoing pattern of inflammatory statements that, explicitly or implicitly, accuse Israeli soldiers of carrying out war crimes. The committee emphasized that this conduct has been consistent and deliberate.
According to the committee, Cassif’s remarks damage the dignity of the Knesset and erode the public’s confidence in the institution. It also claimed his rhetoric lends strength to Israel’s enemies during a time of war.
Due to the summer recess and the fact that Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh is already serving a suspension, the committee opted to delay Cassif’s penalty until October.
Cassif clarified that the sanctions do not include stripping him of his right to vote in the plenum.
The committee pointed out that most of the 12 complaints were filed during a six-month window when Cassif was already suspended from participating in Knesset sessions for making similar remarks. Complainants included MKs from Likud such as Tally Gotliv and Ofir Katz, as well as members of the public.
That earlier suspension came after Cassif added his name to a public letter in support of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. In another controversial moment, he described Palestinian gunmen clashing with Israeli forces in Jenin as “freedom fighters.”
The newest round of complaints centered on more recent comments Cassif made regarding the conflict in Gaza. Among them were statements likening the war to the Holocaust, allegations that Israel is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank, and comparing Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails to Israeli hostages held by Hamas. He also called Netanyahu a “psychopathic murderer” and asked ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and other ministers for war crimes.
Cassif strongly condemned the Ethics Committee’s actions, framing them as an attempt to erase Arab voices from the Israeli legislature. He pledged not to “bow before this harassment.”
Although Cassif is Jewish, he is part of Hadash-Ta’al, a predominantly Arab party.
“It’s not a matter of parliamentary ethics, but of political censorship and persecution as well as terrorization (“chilling effect”) of the entire leftist camp, Arabs and Jews alike,” Cassif wrote in English on his X account. “The real end behind this suspension is to thwart our faction from any parliamentary activity altogether, and, in the longer run, to eliminate any representation of the Arab and the democratic Jewish citizens. My repeated suspensions are merely the appetizer, as it were.”
One complaint submitted by MKs Oded Forer of Yisrael Beytenu and Almog Cohen of Otzma Yehudit was dismissed by the committee, which ruled that Cassif had not violated ethical standards in that case.
The complaint referenced a February post by Cassif, in which he shared an image of Jews queuing outside a migration office in Vienna in 1938. In the post, he noted: “this month, exactly 86 years ago, the ‘Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration’ was established in Berlin with the aim of encouraging voluntary emigration of German Jews.”
Meanwhile, the committee reprimanded MK Almog Cohen for his verbal attack on Cassif, where he labeled him a “traitor” who “represents the interests of Hamas and the BDS movement and serves as a fifth column among us.” Cohen was not suspended.
In a prior incident in 2023, Cohen was banned from speaking in the plenum or in committee meetings for five days after making racially charged comments about members of the opposition.
A separate effort to expel Cassif from the Knesset failed in February 2024, as the vote garnered only 85 supporters — five short of the 90 required for expulsion.
That effort stemmed from Cassif’s vocal support of South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, which critics denounced as “treasonous.”
Instead of being removed from office, Cassif was issued another six-month suspension by the Ethics Committee in November 2024 over similar conduct.
In 2019, Cassif had been disqualified from seeking election to the Knesset by the Central Elections Committee over incendiary remarks, including calling then-Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked “neo-Nazi scum.” That disqualification was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Last week, the Knesset House Committee largely sided with Hadash-Ta’al’s Ayman Odeh over comments he made comparing Palestinian prisoners in Israel to Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza. A formal vote on whether to remove Odeh is scheduled for Monday.
Odeh is currently serving a two-week suspension, which lasts until July 22, for an incident in March 2024 when he was forcibly removed from the podium after accusing Israeli troops in Gaza of committing “murder” and carrying out a “massacre.”

{Matzav.com}