Knesset to vote on expulsion of Arab lawmaker who said 'Gaza will win'

‘Today it’s me, tomorrow it’s you,’ says Ayman Odeh, slamming opposition members who backed petition to trigger vote on his ouster, which requires 90 MKs to pass

The Knesset will vote on the ouster of Arab lawmaker Ayman Odeh after he said during an anti-war protest that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win,” according to the coalition member who initiated the proceedings.

MK Avichay Buaron, a member of the ruling Likud party, on Wednesday submitted a petition to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to hold the vote, which will require a special majority of 90 to pass, Buaron said on X.

“Whoever sticks a knife in the back of IDF soldiers and the State of Israel will not be a member of Knesset,” said Buaron in a video statement. It was unclear when the Knesset would vote on Odeh’s ouster.

According to a 2016 law, such petitions must be signed by 70 lawmakers, including ten from the opposition, out of the Knesset’s 120 members.

A similar petition was submitted last year against MK Ofer Cassif, a member of Odeh’s binational communist Hadash party, for supporting the International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. The vote to oust Cassif fell short, with 85 lawmakers voting in favor.

Odeh slammed the new expulsion proceedings as part of a broader push “to effectively strip the Arab citizens of Israel of their right to political representation and equality, and to suppress voter turnout in Arab communities.”

MK Avichay Buaron speaks during a meeting of the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, in Jerusalem, March 3, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“Today it’s me, and tomorrow it’s you,” Odeh wrote on X Wednesday, in twin Hebrew and English statements.

“The fact that members of the opposition chose to join this effort and helped gather the 70 required signatures is nothing less than full cooperation with the Likud’s orchestrated campaign,” he said.

“Since the war began, we’ve heard incitement for genocide from coalition MKs, yet not a single one of them was expelled,” Odeh accused. “But when an Arab member of parliament dares to speak the truth… they rush to silence him.”

“It is the first step on a dark path toward dismantling free elections and erasing the principle of equality before the law,” said Odeh. “I am not afraid, because I know I am not alone. With me stand hundreds of thousands of Jews and Arabs, united in the struggle to stop this war.”

The petition against Odeh was launched in January after the lawmaker said he was happy about both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being released in the Gaza ceasefire deal that was reached that month, 15 months after the war was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Buaron said on Wednesday that the petition has gathered 70 signatures, with more lawmakers joining after Odeh’s comment at the Haifa rally over the weekend against the Gaza war.

MK Ayman Odeh speaks at an anti-war rally in Haifa, May 31, 2025. (Ayman Odeh/X)

Following Odeh’s speech, Buaron had said that “to my shock and dismay, many in the opposition and even a few in the coalition haven’t signed off on the move to oust him, and we haven’t reached the requisite 70 signatures.”

He added then that “just one” member of the centrist National Unity party, and “a few” from fellow centrist party Yesh Atid, had signed off on the motion.

It was unclear which Yesh Atid members, if any, signed off on Buaron’s petition. According to Hebrew media, the ten requisite opposition lawmakers who signed the petition against Odeh included all six members of the hawkish-secularist Yisrael Beytenu as well as MKs Chili Tropper, Pnina Tamano-Shata, Matan Kahana and Michael Biton of National Unity.

It was also not clear if all 68 members of the coalition ultimately signed off on Buaron’s petition.