MK starts process to expel far-left lawmaker who supports genocide charges against Israel

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer is pushing to expel Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif from the Knesset after the far-left lawmaker publicly endorsed South Africa’s charges of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice.

“My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide,” Cassif tweeted yesterday after it was reported that he had signed a petition supporting the South African case.

In response, Forer announces that he is working to collect signatures from 70 MKs in order to start to process of expelling Cassif from the Knesset in accordance with Basic Law: the Knesset, which allows lawmakers to remove a colleague who expresses “support for an armed struggle by an enemy state, or of a terrorist organization, against the State of Israel.”

If Forer manages to reach that goal, the matter will be taken up by the Knesset House Committee and will then go to a vote in the plenum, where Cassif’s expulsion will require 90 votes in order to pass.

“MK Kasif’s treasonous words can no longer be heard while the blood of our soldiers and citizens screams from the ground,” Forer declares.

“Kasif, who was previously disqualified from running for the Knesset following a petition I submitted to the Elections Committee, chose during the war to join one of the most destructive initiatives for the security of the State of Israel, thus supporting the fight of Hamas against Israel. He must soon find himself beyond the borders of the Knesset and preferably also beyond the borders of the State of Israel.”