From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
At hearing on potential impeachment of Odeh, Likud lawmaker implies Arab MK a security threat
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Opening a Knesset House Committee hearing on the potential impeachment of MK Ayman Odeh, chairman Ofir Katz (Likud) implies that the removal of the chairman of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party is necessary because he constitutes a security threat.
“Why specifically now?” he asks. “While the soldiers are fighting on seven fronts, the eighth front needs to be cleared, and Ayman Odeh is our eighth front… He is continuously working to weaken the State of Israel, to discredit it, to undermine it and to strengthen its enemies.”
“Since he entered politics, he has done nothing for the Arabs of Israel; he is only for Gaza and against the State of Israel. If he had behaved like this in countries like Syria, they would have hanged him in the city square. But Israel is not such a country, it is the only democracy in the Middle East and in the world that allows such a person to sit in our parliament. We will not allow this to continue, neither in the name of freedom of expression nor in the name of tolerance,” Katz adds.
As the hearing continues, Odeh and Katz begin a shouting match, with Katz yelling that Odeh is an “arch-terrorist.”
Today’s hearing is to determine whether or not to impeach Odeh for a statement he made appearing to equate Israeli hostages with Palestinian security prisoners.
Knesset House Committee chairman Katz calls MK Ayman Odeh an “arch-terrorist” during an impeachment hearing pic.twitter.com/7H5dbTejCN
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) June 24, 2025
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