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‘Victim of the occupation’: Jewish lawmaker compares teen killed in Jerusalem bombing to terrorists killed by IDF

“I want to send my condolences to all victims of the occupation, Jews and Palestinians alike,” Cassif stated.

By World Israel News Staff

Ofer Cassif, the sole Jewish MK in the Arab Hadash-Ta’al party, equated the teen victim of a Jerusalem bombing Wednesday morning with a murdered teen terrorist, infuriating lawmakers present at his Knesset address.

“I want to send my condolences to all victims of the occupation, Jews and Palestinians alike,” Cassif stated.

“Today and yesterday, two 16-year-old boys were murdered: Aryeh Schupak, who was murdered today, and Ahmed Amjad Shehadah, who was murdered yesterday. We want this bloodshed to stop, and it will stop only when the occupation ends,” he said.

Shehadeh was present at overnight clashes between Palestinian terrorists and IDF forces who were accompanying Jewish worshipers on their monthly pilgimage to Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem (Nablus); Schupak was waiting at a bus stop for a ride to school.

“Ofer Cassif is comparing the victim of today’s attack, who was on his way to a yeshiva, to a Palestinian who was present at the riots near Shechem and was killed by IDF soldiers,” declared Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman.

“Anyone who compares our soldiers to vile terrorists, and terror victims to our enemies and those who wish us harm, is in the Knesset because of the trampling of the Basic law: the Knesset by the judges of the Supreme Court,” he charged.

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Cassif’s opinion was not surprising; several times, he has slammed the “occupation” and defended Palestinian “resistance. On Wednesday, however, Likud MKs Tally Gotliv and Hanoch Milwidsky slammed the pro-Palestinian lawmaker for making his offensive statement on the same day as the terror attack that claimed Schupak’s life and wounded at least 19 others, some critically. The two MKs, among others, left in protest.

At the swearing-in of the new Knesset last week, Arab-Israeli lawmaker Ayman Odeh, head of the Hadash party, declined to be photographed alongside the Israeli flag.