Towards the dismissal of the leader of the Israeli Arab opposition?
An Israeli parliamentary committee voted on June 30th to remove Arab MK Ayman Odeh from office over several social media posts. The decision has yet to be voted on by the Knesset. The issue is an explosive one, and only the left-wing Israeli daily Ha'Aretz seems to be showing any signs of concern.
On Monday, June 30, a special committee of the Knesset—the Israeli parliament—passed a bill to remove an Arab Israeli lawmaker, Ayman Odeh, chairman of Hadash (the Hebrew acronym for the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), a post-communist Arab-Jewish alliance. The bill passed by an overwhelming majority (14 votes in favor and 2 votes against).
In addition to the government majority deputies, "commissioners from the Jewish opposition also voted in favor of this dismissal: Israel Beiteinu ['Israel Our Home', secular far-right party], Yesh Atid ['There is a Future', centrist party] and HaMahaneh HaMamlakhti ['State Camp', moderate right-wing party]," Israeli journalists Noa Shpigel and Adi Hashmonai point out in Ha'Aretz .
The cause was a message posted on various social media by MP Ayman Odeh in January. “I am relieved to see the [Israeli] hostages and [Palestinian] prisoners released. Then we must free our two peoples [Jewish and Palestinian] from the yoke of occupation. We were all born to be free.” Meanwhile, last June, another post by Ayman Odeh was considered the final straw: “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”
Both messages were denounced as a glorification of terrorism and support for the terrorist organization Hamas. Mordechai Kremnitzer , a law professor emeritus and Ha'Aretz columnist, said: "One can be legitimately shocked by these messages, except that none of them reaches the level of ignominy and racism expressed so bluntly in the Knesset, which openly called for ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel."
In its July 1 editorial, Ha'Aretz pulls no punches. The vote on this impeachment is “frightening” because it “brutally expresses a dominant, majority Israeli Jewish worldview, blinded by nationalist fanaticism and deafened by its ignorance of history – a vision determined to stifle and oust any critical Arab voice, even democratic. This motion is a declaration of war on our fellow Arab citizens.”
It is not yet known when the Knesset will confirm the committee's vote in plenary. On the one hand, Sagit Afek, the deputy attorney general for parliamentary activities , told the Knesset committee that it was doubtful whether Ayman Odeh's impeachment was justified.
“The impeachment motion is based on only two posts and there is no tangible evidence that his support for armed struggle is a dominant feature of his aspirations.”
On the other hand, if this motion is still voted on by a qualified majority (90 deputies out of 120), it will be contested by Ayman Odeh before the Supreme Court, which will suspend this controversial vote.
Courrier International
