‘Treasonous’: Knesset to vote on removal of lawmaker who backed genocide charges

MK Oded Forer: ‘It would be my great privilege to boot the most despicable person the Knesset has ever known.’

By Vered Weiss

The Knesset is preparing to vote on whether to expel MK Ofer Cassif for siding against Israel in the genocide hearing at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Ynet reports.

Ofer Cassif is the only Jewish MK representing the majority Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, and recently signed a petition endorsing the accusation made by South Africa that Israel was guilty of committing “genocide” against Gazan civilians in the ongoing war.

On Monday, the Knesset held a hearing on whether to convene a plenum vote that could lead to the expulsion of Ofer Cassif.

The motion was brought by Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer who felt Cassif’s actions and remarks were “treasonous” and is employing an as-yet unused procedure stipulated in the 2016 Suspension Law that would allow members of the Knesset to expel peers if they were found to support “an armed struggle” against Israel or if they are proven to have incited racism.

MK Ofer Cassif not only signed a petition accusing Israel of genocide, but has posted on X repeating the allegation and has granted interviews with anti-Israel media organizations.

Cassif wrote on X “My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide.”

After bringing the motion, Oded Forer said, “It would be my great privilege to boot the most despicable person the Knesset has ever known.”

Forer also said Cassif has “continued to make harsh comments during the war.”

In a speech before the Knesset, Oded Forer said the motion was signed by 87 members of the Knesset, much more than the threshold requirement of 70 votes to allow the vote to go forward.

If Ofer Cassif undergoes an impeachment trial in the Knesset, a majority of 90 Knesset members will need to vote in favor of his ouster to have him dismissed.