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The extreme leftist MK had joined S. Africa in charging Israel at the International Court of Justice with attempted genocide in Gaza.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Extreme leftist Ofer Cassif was banned from Knesset for six months Monday by the body’s Ethics Committee for his unrelenting, public vilification of Israel and the IDF since the Israel-Hamas war began thirteen months ago.
The committee, consisting of two legislators each from the coalition and Opposition, unanimously decided that the MK’s actions and words went beyond what could be tolerated as free speech, especially during wartime.
The only Jew on the Arab Hadash-Ta’al list was “encouraging bloodshed against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel, while undermining the state’s ability to deal” with charges against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it said in its decision.
Cassif had joined South Africa’s petition at the ICJ to try Israel for attempting to commit “genocide” in the Gaza Strip even as the noncombatant-to-combatant deaths are about two to one, a ratio whose excellence is almost unheard-of during war.
He also repeatedly vilified the IDF for supposedly committing war crimes and referenced the Holocaust in accusing the government of using the October 7 surprise invasion in which Hamas and other terrorists massacred 1,200 people, including women, children and the elderly, as a reason to carry out a “final solution” against the Palestinians.
The committee also referenced pre-war statements Cassif had made justifying Palestinian terrorism against civilians and calling jailed terrorists “political prisoners.”
Cassif was not only unrepentant in his response to the temporary expulsion, he doubled down on his anti-Israel stance.
Posting to X that the country was only a “so-called democracy” that was fast becoming fascist, he called the move “political censorship” by a “bloody, evil government” that “celebrate[s] the killing of innocents” while “those who fight for justice and peace are persecuted as traitors.”
Cassif’s ban extends to participating in or even entering plenary sessions and Knesset committee meetings, although he will be allowed to vote on bills. His pay was docked for two weeks as well.
While it was the harshest punishment given to a Knesset member in years, it did not come close to the desire of a vast majority of the legislature to kick him out permanently.
In February, 85 MKs voted to oust him, but 90 are necessary for such a move and it failed.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir referenced this when he said, “The terror supporter Ofer Cassif should be permanently expelled from the Israeli Knesset and deported to Syria. Six months is not enough.”
Human rights organization Betsalmo, which had demanded two weeks ago that the Committee meet after Cassif had branded an IDF soldier who fell in Gaza as a “criminal” and “monster,” expressed limited satisfaction with the verdict.
“I congratulate the decision to suspend [Cassif] from the Knesset and the monetary fine,” said director Shai Glick, but then added, “Cassif should be in jail and not the Knesset.”
“Cassif has been a terror supporter for a long time and chooses in Israel’s most dire hour to support the enemy anytime and anywhere, as well as vilify IDF soldiers, even those who fell in battle,” Glick said. “He [also] has been indicted for the most serious crime of attacking a police officer… [but] he received a ‘celebrity discount’ and is walking around freely while his trial has been postponed for a long time.”
The MK was indicted in January on charges of aggravated assault against a police officer as a result of a fracas in Judea and Samaria in May 2022.
This is punishable by a sentence of at least three months but can also be increased to as much as five years in prison.
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