With only 73 votes in favor, motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh fails to pass

By Sam Sokol 14 July 2025, 10:34 pm

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Sam 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"

Hadash-Ta'al chair Ayman Odeh flashes a victory sign while speaking in the Knesset, ahead of a vote on a motion to expel him, July 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh from the Knesset fails to pass, with only 73 out of the required 90 lawmakers voting in favor. 15 MKs vote against, and multiple opposition MKs boycott the vote.

The vote requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass. Last month, the Knesset House Committee approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least 10 signatures from the opposition.

The petition was put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”

Both United Torah Judaism and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White—National Unity party boycott the vote, while Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and most of his Yesh Atid party’s MKs are absent as well.

The measure is supported by the coalition and by opposition party Yisrael Beytenu. The Democrats vote against it.