Panel votes to impeach Arab MK Ayman Odeh, paving way for possible ouster from Knesset

Lawmakers in the Knesset House Committee came out overwhelmingly in favor of impeaching MK Ayman Odeh on Monday, in what the chairman of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party decried as an attempt to silence Arab Israelis.

Following two days of contentious debate, lawmakers, including representatives of the opposition Yesh Atid and National Unity parties, voted 14-2 in favor of impeachment. The matter will now be referred to the Knesset plenum, where 90 MKs would have to vote in favor in order to oust Odeh from the parliament.

At issue in the impeachment hearings was a statement Odeh made earlier this year that appeared to equate Israeli hostages held in Gaza by terrorists with Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel.

The Arab lawmaker drew outrage from lawmakers across the political spectrum on January 19 when he posted on X that he was “happy for the release of the hostages and prisoners” under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Odeh later defended his statement, characterizing the released Palestinian prisoners as minors and insisting that “most of the prisoners released that day were not charged with anything at all.”

While none of those released were charged with murder, several were behind failed terror attacks, including 15-year-old Mahmoud Aliowat, who was convicted of carrying out a shooting in the City of David area of Jerusalem, wounding two people, when he was 13.

In response, Likud MK Avichai Boaron earlier this month began collecting legislators’ signatures in an effort to kickstart the impeachment process, arguing that “whoever sticks a knife in the back of IDF soldiers and the State of Israel will not be a member of Knesset.”

Addressing dozens of left-wing demonstrators protesting against his impeachment outside the Knesset ahead of the vote, Odeh contended that Boaron’s push was part of a larger effort to silence Arab Israelis.

“Under the cover of this war, they want to bring us backwards, to hurt freedom of expression that we over the course of many years struggled to expand,” he charged, as demonstrators waved giant red flags with the communist hammer and sickle alongside signs in Hebrew and Arabic declaring their support.

‘He would shoot each one of us in the head’

According to Basic Law: The Knesset, 90 Knesset members may vote to expel a colleague who expressed support “for an armed struggle” against the State of Israel. Once 70 signatures are collected, the matter is referred to the House Committee — where Tuesday’s hearing took place — and, if approved there, goes to the plenum for a vote on impeachment.

While the vote will come down to whether Odeh’s tweet regarding Palestinian prisoners constituted support for terrorism, lawmakers raised multiple additional statements in support of their contention that Odeh is pro-terror, including his recent declaration that “Gaza has won, and Gaza will win.”

“If it were up to him, he would shoot each one of us in the head. In his subconscious, he wants to eliminate all of us here,” Likud MK Osher Shekalim told the committee.

“The proposal to impeach Odeh is not a political question but a moral one. There is no justification for a person who supports terrorists and who was happy about the release of terrorists to serve as a member of Knesset,” declared Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, adding that there was “broad consensus on the issue.”

While a similar effort to oust Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif failed in the Knesset plenum in February 2024 due to insufficient support from the opposition, opposition representatives on the committee were very much in favor of the motion this time around, with both Yesh Atid MK Simon Davidson and National Unity lawmaker Pnina Tamano-Shata voting in favor of impeachment.

“One of the grounds for dismissing an MK is incitement to racism, and I tell you, antisemitism is racism and anyone who shouts ‘Gaza will win’ during a war does not deserve to sit in the Knesset,” Tamano-Shata told the committee.

Odeh should “decide whether he is a Gazan or an Israeli,” she added.

Asked if his party would vote in favor in the plenum as well, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, the Yesh Atid party chairman, told reporters on Monday that “anyone who speaks like this should not be a member of Knesset.”

For his part, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz expressed discomfort with the idea of Knesset members voting to expel a parliamentary colleague, even as he condemned Odeh’s rhetoric.

“We will hold a members’ debate beforehand and decide what we are doing,” he told reporters.

In response to Davidson and Tamano-Shata’s votes, Odeh accused the opposition of “crushing the democratic space” in collaboration with the “Kahanist government,” stating that “some of them hate us more than they love democracy.”

“They want to subdue the judicial system, silence critical voices, and turn Israel into a messianic dictatorship. Today it’s me – tomorrow it’s you. Anyone who dares to oppose will be next in line,” Odeh added, calling on the leaders of the Knesset opposition to “wake up.”

MK Cassif agreed, tweeting that Monday’s hearing was a “shameful and grotesque show trial, a political lynching [in which] Knesset members competed over who could shout louder, incite more, rant more, attack more, act more thuggishly, and slander more.”

“Let there be no doubt: the decision to dismiss MK Odeh is another step in the rampage of fascism in Israel, which will also reach those opposition elements that joined the bloodthirsty coalition in supporting this persecution and impeachment,” he declared.

Hadash-Ta'al MK Ofer Cassif is forcibly removed from the Knesset House Committee following a verbal confrontation with a bereaved father who slams the parliament's Arab parties during today's hearing on the impeachment of Hadash-Ta'al chief Ayman Odeh. The chair calls a recess pic.twitter.com/mdiS4TM5Ux

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) June 30, 2025

Cassif was ejected twice from the hearing and MK Waleed Taha from fellow Arab party Ra’am was removed once. Taha was almost expelled from the room a second time after committee members objected to him speaking in Arabic.

Coalition lawmakers who repeatedly interrupted Arab MKs were not removed.

A high bar to clear

While “the public outcry and criticism of MK Odeh’s statement is understandable,” that does not necessarily mean that it violated the law, Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik told lawmakers.

According to the law, “a clear case must exist in which there is a significant mass of clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence showing that support for armed struggle is a dominant feature within the framework of the candidate’s aspirations,” she explained, arguing that “it is doubtful whether this statement meets the test of support for an armed struggle by a terrorist organization.”

Likewise, Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky argued that while Odeh’s statement may be “outrageous,” it “does not meet the required threshold.”

Noting that Odeh had already announced that he would not seek reelection, The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan accused supporters of impeachment of engaging in “pure propaganda.”

“His impeachment is another victory for the nationalist-extremist government over a secure and democratic Israel. This morning it’s Ayman. This afternoon it’s the public broadcasting corporation. Tomorrow it’s the attorney general. The day after tomorrow it’s you. Wake up,” he tweeted.

Charlie Summers contributed to this report.