(June 27, 2025)

In a display of open hostility, Committee Chair Ofir Katz declared to MK Odeh: “You won’t be in the Knesset—we will remain, and you won’t. Not in the Knesset, not in Israel.” Other MKs shouted that he should “keep shouting from jail,” while another told him: “You all should go to Gaza”. Right-wing MKs accused him of promoting a “violent Palestinian ideology,” said an indictment should already have been filed, and called him an “enemy from within.”

Chair Katz escalated the incitement further, stating: “While the soldiers are fighting on seven fronts, the eighth front needs to be cleared, and Ayman Odeh is our eighth front… He is continuously working to weaken the State of Israel, to discredit it, to undermine it and to strengthen its enemies.” When MK Odeh repeated that the Israeli military is committing war crimes—a statement for which he was already sanctioned by the Knesset Ethics Committee—the chair threatened: “If you continue to defame IDF soldiers, you will not be allowed to speak here.”

The committee blatantly ignored the Knesset legal advisor’s determination that only one statement—MK Odeh’s January tweet concerning the Israel-Hamas deal—could be legally considered. Instead, MKs used the hearing to dredge up unrelated political positions and to launch personal attacks, in open defiance of the law and the legal advisor’s position.

MK Odeh’s January statement was a tweet that read: “Happy about the release of the hostages and prisoners. From here, we must free both peoples from the burden of occupation. We were all born free.” During the hearing, he reaffirmed his support for this statement and others, including his position that Israel is committing crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.