Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said that he would vote in favor of impeaching Hadash-Ta’al’s chairperson, MK Ayman Odeh, in a vote scheduled for next Monday (July 14) in an interview he had with Channel 12 on Saturday.
This announcement is notable since Lapid would be supporting the ouster of a fellow leader from the opposition party. Lapid, for example, did not participate in a previous impeachment proceeding against Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif in 2024.
The official grounds for the impeachment relate to a post by Odeh on X/Twitter in January after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
In it, Odeh wrote, “Happy about the release of hostages and [Palestinian] prisoners. From here on, both peoples need to be freed from the burden of the occupation; we were born free.”
The impeachment proposal received the requisite support of 70 signatories, including 10 from the opposition. On June 30, the Knesset House Committee completed a hearing for Odeh and approved the measure, with support from opposition parties Yisrael Beytenu, Yesh Atid, and Blue and White.
The measure now must receive the support of 90 MKs in the Knesset plenum for Odeh to be impeached, after which the MK has the right to appeal to the High Court of Justice.
'Odeh compared Nukhba terrorists to our hostages in Gaza'
In an answer to a reporter’s question on June 30 following the House Committee vote, Lapid said, “Odeh compared the Nukhba terrorists to our hostages in Gaza at a time when, as I already mentioned, 20 IDF soldiers have been killed in one month – and he says ‘Gaza will win.’”
Yesh Atid MK Simon Davidson “told me what happened in the committee,” Lapid further said. Odeh “absolutely refuses to retract – this is unforgivable. This isn’t about Arab parties; it’s personal, and someone who speaks like that shouldn’t be an MK. The faction will hold a discussion about how each of us will vote.”
A spokesperson for the party stated that its 23 MKs will be given the prerogative to vote as they see fit. The spokesperson estimated that approximately 10 MKs would support the proposal.
A spokesperson for Blue and White said that the party had not yet decided whether to adopt a unified stance or allow its MKs to vote as they see fit.
The leaders of the two parties’ Knesset factions, MK Ahmad Tibi (Hadash-Ta’al) and MK Waleed Taha (Ra’am), slammed their fellow opposition members’ support of the measure.
IN A statement last week, they called it “cooperation between opposition factions and the Likud, the Religious Zionist, and the Otzma Yehudit parties aimed at ousting Arab MK Ayman Odeh over a tweet he posted and his expression of joy regarding a hostage deal.”
“This constitutes political persecution and a crossing of a moral red line: Instead of defending freedom of expression, most opposition factions are joining the extremist coalition, including the Likud, the Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit, and other coalition members in an effort to silence Arab elected officials. We will not be complicit,” they said.
Approximately 150 political science and law academics from public universities and colleges in Israel appealed in a letter to Yesh Atid and Blue and White MKs on Sunday not to support the impeachment.
According to the academics, the impeachment was a “dangerous move that undermines the foundations of Israeli democracy.”
“One does not need to agree with Odeh’s views to oppose his ousting strongly,” the academics wrote. “The proper way to respond to his statements is through arguments, public debates, and open dialogue, not by denying representation rights or harming the pillars of democracy.”
The scholars argued that the attempt to remove Odeh was not an isolated event but part of a “broader pattern led by the current coalition aimed at changing democratic norms to solidify its rule,” including attempts made ahead of the previous election to introduce cameras into polling stations, legislation intended to ease the disqualification of Arab candidates, and the current effort to “unseat one of the most prominent Arab representatives in the Knesset.”
Likud MK Avichay Boaron initiated the process following the post in January but did not receive the necessary support. Boaron revived the procedure in early June after Odeh said during a protest, “After 600 days, there is an overwhelming majority among both peoples saying: If only these 20 months had never happened. This is a historic defeat for the Right, which was defeated in Gaza. Gaza won, and Gaza will win.”
The Knesset legal advisory team stressed that if Boaron wanted to include the June statement in the impeachment claim, he would need to begin collecting signatures anew.
Boaron ignored the advice, and the legal team clarified during a hearing in the Knesset House Committee last week that the only relevant statement was, therefore, the one in January.
However, during this discussion, MKs from the coalition and the opposition repeatedly mentioned numerous other statements by Odeh that were not officially part of the impeachment claim.
Ergo, it is widely believed that if the impeachment is passed in the Knesset, it will still be struck down by the High Court of Justice.