From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Despite member’s stated opposition, Yesh Atid party says it backs expelling far-left MK
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"
MK Ofer Cassif of the Hadash-Ta’al party does not belong in the Knesset, a spokesman for Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party tells The Times of Israel, as the far-left lawmaker faces expulsion for supporting South Africa’s accusations of Israeli genocide in Gaza.
“Yesh Atid believes that Ofer Cassif should not be an MK in the Knesset. Just like Ministers Amichai Eliyahu and [Itamar] Ben Gvir,” the spokesman says in a statement. “The members of the faction [provided] the necessary signatures for his impeachment and will vote for his impeachment in the House Committee. Yesh Atid is a democratic party with a variety of opinions and the members of the faction can express their opinions.”
Some in the party have expressed opposition to the impeachment, with MK Meirav Cohen declaring yesterday that while she dislikes Cassif’s positions, “it is not the role of Knesset members to depose other Knesset members.”
“The move to impeach [Cassif] is populist, and its whole purpose is to push the case to the High Court of Justice, so that it will reject the impeachment, and then they can accuse it of ‘leftism/treason/something related to George Soros,’” she has tweeted.
Members of the Knesset House Committee are currently debating referring Cassif’s impeachment to the Knesset plenum, where the motion would require the support of 90 lawmakers to pass.
Both Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky and Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik have expressed the opinion that Cassif’s actions have failed to meet the required legal threshold for impeachment.
The Times of Israel Community.