Knesset member Ofer Cassif, the sole Jewish MK of the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al Party, will be banned from plenary and committee meetings until September because of his incessant incitement against Israel, the parliament’s Ethics Committee decided on Wednesday.
The Ethics Committee—which comprises four MKs from the coalition and opposition—also voted on Wednesday to cut Cassif’s salary for two weeks due to his anti-Israel statements.
The decision noted that the complaints filed against Cassif revealed a “systematic and consistent pattern” of statements accusing Israel Defense Forces soldiers and the State of Israel of war crimes.
Cassif “not only harmed the dignity of the Knesset and its members, but also undermined the war effort and gave encouragement to the enemy,” according to the committee. Two of the 12 complaints were rejected as they were not deemed violations of the Knesset’s Ethical Code.
Cassif was banned from the Knesset between November 2024 and May 2025 for drawing a connection between the Holocaust and Israel’s actions during the current war.
In addition, Cassif was suspended for 45 days for anti-Israel comments he made in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
In February, Israeli lawmakers voted against revoking Cassif’s Knesset membership over his public support for the charges of genocide that South Africa filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Eighty-five MKs voted in favor of ousting him, below the 90 needed in the 120-member Knesset. The opposition Yesh Atid Party led by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz’s National Unity did not back the initiative.
Cassif caused a firestorm in November 2022 by declaring that Aryeh Shchupak, 16, had been a “victim of the occupation” after he was murdered in a Palestinian terrorist bombing in Jerusalem.
Earlier that month, Cassif asserted that Jews living in Judea and Samaria were liable for attacks against them as they were not innocent civilians. “They live as a thorn in the throats of the Palestinians,” he said, adding that Palestinian attacks were “not terror.”
In 2021, in a Facebook post marking Palestinian Prisoners Day, Cassif referred to jailed terrorists as “political prisoners.” He also shared an image of a cell with the caption: “May all the captives be released!”
