Cassif rejects allegation of supporting Hamas, happy to ‘pay high price’ for backing Hague case
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif declares that he is fighting for his values and to advance freedom and security for all, pushing back against allegations that he supports Hamas’s armed struggle against Israel.
Addressing the Knesset House Committee during an impeachment hearing, the far-left lawmaker declares that he is “paying a high price” for his political views but is doing so “with joy.”
If the hearing goes badly for Cassif, he could face an unprecedented Knesset vote to expel him under a 2016 law under which legislators may expel colleagues if they are found to have committed one of a number of infractions, including expressing support “for an armed struggle” against Israel or inciting racism.
The hearing is the result of his fellow lawmakers’ intense anger over his
public support for a South African petition to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
“I never supported Hamas and certainly not its armed struggle against Israel,” he says, prompting angry yelling from coalition MKs, whom he accuses of pushing for “right-wing Kahanist rule.”
During the hearing, far-right MK Limor Son Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit) engaged in a shouting match with Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi.
“Terror supporters don’t need to sit here,” Har Melech screamed, in the latest of a series of angry interruptions by Likud and Otzma Yehudit lawmakers.
“So leave,” Tibi shouted back.