The B’Tslamo Zionist NGO filed a complaint with the Knesset Ethics Committee on Sunday after Israeli-Arab lawmaker Ayman Odeh declared that “Gaza will win” at a rally in Haifa.
“This is a crossing of a red line and a slap in the face to every citizen in Israel, in particular to the families of the murdered, the kidnapped and the soldiers,” wrote the NGO, which also urged Israel’s Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to pursue criminal charges against Odeh.
“We call on all members of the Knesset, from all factions, to put politics aside and unite behind one clear demand: to expel MK Ayman Odeh from the Knesset,” stated B’Tsalmo CEO Shai Glick, adding: “Anyone who encourages Hamas cannot sit in the Israeli Knesset.”
Odeh, the leader of the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al Party, told attendees at the rally on Saturday that, 600 days into the Israel Defense Forces operation launched in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre, “Gaza won, and Gaza will win.”
“Israel has become a pariah state across the world, among all nations and in the West … The Israeli government is calling for genocide, and when we say these are crimes against humanity, it gets outraged. We will say it to their face: This is genocide, this is ethnic cleansing,” said Odeh.
“After the killing of 53,000, the blood must not be in vain,” he continued, apparently mourning Hamas terrorists alongside noncombatants as the source of the figure is the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish. “The occupation must be eliminated,” added Odeh.
Energy Minister Eli Cohen wrote on X on Saturday night that Odeh is “a fifth column who supports the enemy and, from within the Knesset, acts against the State of Israel.” Odeh’s parliamentary immunity “must be revoked and he should be sent to prison or to Gaza,” Cohen added.
Otzma Yehudit Knesset member Zvika Fogel on Sunday wrote a letter to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, requesting that Odeh’s Israeli passport be revoked “immediately” and that he be deported to the Gaza Strip.
Odeh’s statements “constitute clear support for a terrorist organization that carried out the massacre on Oct. 7 and continues to act against the citizens of the State of Israel,” wrote Fogel. “Enemies of Israel disguised as democrats are not worthy of being citizens.”
Yisrael Beiteinu MK Oded Forer also condemned Odeh, writing: “It isn’t being left-wing or right-wing—it’s being pro-Israel or pro-Hamas. Whoever sides with the enemy cannot serve in the Knesset.”
In January, Likud Knesset member Avichai Boaron informed Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana that he was working to collect signatures from 70 lawmakers to kickstart the process of expelling Odeh.
The attempt to oust Odeh, which also needs approval from a committee and 90 votes out of 120 in the plenum to pass, came after the MK welcomed the release of both Israeli hostages and Palestinian terrorists, prompting rebuke from across Jerusalem’s political spectrum.
“During a special and unifying moment for the people of Israel, Odeh chose to make an outrageous comparison between the return of the hostages and the release of the murderers and terrorists. His words clearly constitute support for terrorism,” read Boaron’s statement.
The Knesset has never before voted to remove a fellow lawmaker over accusations of “support for an armed struggle by an enemy state, or a terrorist organization against the State of Israel.”
In November, Odeh was ejected from the Knesset plenum after accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “serial killer of peace.”
Odeh in 2022 refused to condemn Iranian-backed Hezbollah as a terror group during a Channel 13 News interview, instead denouncing the Israeli “occupation” as the chief source of terrorism in the region.
That same year, Odeh also refused to be pictured in front of the Jewish state’s official seal and flags, breaking with tradition for lawmakers ahead of the parliament’s inauguration.
Seven years earlier, the Israeli-Arab leader expressed support for stonings during the 1987-1993 Intifada, claiming that this form of terrorism was “fully justified” because of the “occupation.” He added, “I cannot tell the nation how to struggle, where and which target to throw the rock. I do not put red lines on the Arab Palestinian nation.”