Hadash MK Cassif convicted of aggravated assault against a police officer over 2022 incident in West Bank

MK Ofer Cassif of the far-left Hadash party is convicted on a charge of aggravated assault against a police officer over an incident in May 2022 in which Cassif was blocked when trying to get to a demonstration against the evacuation of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank.

Aggravated assault against a police officer is punishable by up to five years in prison, and a minimum three-month prison term.

Cassif was accused of hitting a Border Police officer’s leg with his car and of subsequently slapping him around the head after he got into a shouting match with the Border Police officer, when the MK was prevented from driving to the demonstration.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court finds that “it was proved beyond all reasonable doubt” that Cassif did hit the Border Police officer with his car “with the awareness and intention of thwarting him” from carrying out his duty.

The court also determined that Cassif’s slap to the police officer’s head, in response to a “light” poke in the face by the police officer, was not protected under self-defense laws, describing the assault as disproportionate to the “incidental contact caused by the movement of the defendant’s own body” with the police officer’s finger.

If the court determines that Cassif’s crime has moral turpitude and he does not appeal, he will lose his Knesset seat.

If he were to be imprisoned, even without a determination of moral turpitude, he would be automatically suspended from Knesset for the duration of his sentence.

Cassif calls his conviction “yet another element of the ongoing, open political persecution of anyone who stands fearlessly against the occupation — and its crimes and perpetrators — while advocating for democracy, justice, and true peace for both peoples of this land.”

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 2027. An attorney for Cassif says it is possible he will appeal the conviction.