Archiv: Ofer Cassif


30.08.2024 - 22:50 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

CPI and Hadash Calls to Cease Deadly Military Operation in the Occupied West Bank

The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash issued a common communique who said “The occupation’s attacks in the West Bank is a continuation of the campaign of destruction in Gaza.” They called for occupation forces to cease military operations in the West Bank.

According to Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, “The assault by the occupation forces on the West Bank has nothing to do with the security of Israel. It is just another layer in the total war that the Israeli government has been waging against the entire Palestinian people to annex their land and expel them from their homeland. Stop the war! End the occupation!”

MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) called it the “Gazafication of all Palestinian land” and part of a plan to “ethnically cleanse the West Bank.

29.04.2024 - 08:52 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Amid Police Provocation, Thousands Gathered in Nazareth to Celebrate May Day

MK Cassif said to journalists, “In spite of the fascist menace and terrorization, we marched today, thousands of Jews and Arabs together, to protest against the criminal massacre in Gaza, the occupation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, against social injustice, class exploitation and fascism, and for the release of the hostages on the basis of ‘all-for-all’ principle, for social and national equality, democracy, and just peace.”

31.01.2024 - 18:35 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Racist Ben Gvir Warns Hadash Leader ‘Next in Line’ to Be Expelled from Knesset

Racist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir appears to threaten Hadash MK Ayman Odeh with impeachment, tweeting out a picture of him with the message “next in line.” The photo shared by Ben Gvir shows Odeh holding the arm of Khalida Jarrar, a legislator and senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as she flashes a victory sign following her release from prison in September 2021. On last December 27, Jarrar was arrested again by occupation forces.

The far-right leader’s message comes hours after members of the Knesset House Committee overwhelmingly supported a motion to expel Hadash-Ta’al party lawmaker Ofer Cassif, voting 14-2 to advance his impeachment to the Knesset plenum following two days of contentious debate. During Tuesday’s debate on Cassif’s impeachment, Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi warned the Communist lawmaker’s ouster would “set a precedent” allowing for the impeachment of “all the Arab MKs in the Knesset.” “This is a black day for the Knesset,” Tibi declares following the vote.

31.01.2024 - 18:30 [ Adalah.org ]

Adalah: Motion to Expel Israeli Knesset Member for Supporting South Africa’s ICJ Case Is Unlawful

30/01/2024

Today, the Knesset’s House Committee voted to expel Hadash MK Ofer Cassif, based on his public support for South Africa‘s application to the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide. Adalah: The motion is a deliberate attempt to suppress political dissent against Israel‘s brutal military campaign on Gaza

30.01.2024 - 14:00 [ Jonathan Berger / Twitter ]

“‘You can’t say that Cassif only wanted to stop the war, he’s accusing Israel of genocide,’ screams Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer ….” ? Ruckus at Knesset panel as deputy AG says expelling far-left MK lacks legal basis

30.01.2024 - 13:23 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

European MPs Call for EU to Oppose Removal of Hadash MK Ofer Cassif

On Monday morning, the Knesset House Committee is slated to hear arguments in an unusual debate that will determine the political future of Communist lawmaker Ofer Cassif, from the Hadash-Ta’al parliamentary faction.

If the hearing goes badly for Cassif, he could soon face an unprecedented vote in the Knesset plenum to expel him from the legislative body, the result of his far-right MKs anger over his public support for a South African petition to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Four years ago, lawmakers attempted to gather the required signatures to bring similar charges against Hadash leader MK Ayman Odeh, but the effort never made it to the committee stage.

30.01.2024 - 13:09 [ Al Jazeera ]

‘Why I support ICJ Gaza genocide case against my country, Israel’

(11.01.2024)

Israeli politician Ofer Cassif announced his support for the Gaza genocide lawsuit against Israel at the ICJ, and is now facing an attempt to get him kicked out of parliament. He explains why he did it.

30.01.2024 - 13:05 [ JNS.org ]

Knesset debates booting lawmaker who supported ICJ genocide case

Forer announced the move after Cassif signed a petition in support of the South African case against the Jewish state and claimed that members of the government were calling for ethnic cleansing and even genocide.

Eighty-seven MKs subsequently signed on to the initiative, passing the minimum threshold required for lawmakers to remove a colleague who expresses “support for an armed struggle by an enemy state, or a terrorist organization against the State of Israel.”

17.01.2024 - 22:44 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Hadash MK Cassif: ‘They Want to Silence Us’

MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) is being threatened with expulsion from Israel’s parliament after he signed a petition supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of acts of genocide. Cassif says the impeachment is based on an antidemocratic law that suppresses free speech. “They want me and my friends to shut up,” he says of the far-right government’s persecution of dissenting legislators in an interview to Amy Goodman broadcasted by Democracy Now! “We’ve been against the war from the beginning because we are against bloodshed.”

17.11.2023 - 07:47 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Another Hadash MK Sanctioned Over Statements Against Gaza War

(15.11.2023)

Touma-Sliman, who the committee said did not apologize and did not recant her statements, is barred from Knesset committee and plenum sessions for two months, and also receives a two-week pay deduction.

On October 19, the Ethics Committee of the Knesset suspended another Communist lawmaker, MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash), for what it deemed as “anti-Israel statements after the war in Gaza broke out.” Cassif has been suspended for 45 days.

23.10.2023 - 16:25 [ CBC.ca ]

Israeli politician who lost friends in Hamas attack calls for an end to the Gaza bombings

„I have to condemn totally, with no reservation, of course, the terrible slaughter that Hamas carried out against innocent civilians in the south of Israel. There was no justification for such a massacre,“ Cassif, a Jewish member of the Arab-Jewish opposition coalition Hadash-Ta‘al, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

„Having been saying that, there‘s no justification for the carnage that Israel carries out at the moment. Because those who are harmed, assaulted and killed [are] mostly innocent civilians.“

23.10.2023 - 16:00 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Israelis and Palestinians Should Live in Security and Peace, MK Cassif

“I have to condemn totally, with no reservation the terrible slaughter that Hamas carried out against innocent civilians in the south of Israel. There was no justification for such a massacre,” MK Ofer Cassif, (Hadash) told “As It Happens” host Nil Köksal broadcasted by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). “Having been saying that, there’s no justification for the carnage that Israel carries out at the moment. Because those who are harmed, assaulted and killed [are] mostly innocent civilians.” The following is an excerpt from his conversation with Köksal.

22.10.2023 - 10:25 [ Ofer Cassif / Communist Party of Israel ]

I Will Not Be Silent, MK Ofer Cassif

Last week, I was accused from the platform of Maariv, in the article “Let You Explain” written by Lilac Sigan, that I and my friends in my political path are responsible for the backing the abominable Hamas organization and its strengthening.

Strange, I thought, it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said, in his words, that “those who want to thwart a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas”, and it was Minister Bezalel Smotrich who referred to Hamas as a “political asset”.

For years, the right-wing governments avoided overthrowing the Hamas regime and even transferred funds to it in order to facilitate a favorable political situation for the deepening of the occupation in the West Bank, when the Israeli surrounding localities of Gaza were sacrificed on the altar of the settlements.

22.10.2023 - 10:25 [ Ayman Odeh / New York Times ]

What It Takes to Choose Life Over Revenge

(Oct. 19, 2023)

In his declaration of war on Gaza on Oct. 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel quoted a line from a poem by the Jewish writer Chaim Nachman Bialik. “Revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on social media.

Perhaps the prime minister forgot what Bialik wrote just one line before that: “And cursed be he who cries out: Revenge.” Or the next lines: “Let the blood fill the abyss!/let it pierce the blackest depths.”

These days I find myself asking what the poet meant by this. Bialik wrote it after learning of the horrors of the 1903 Kishinev pogrom.

17.10.2023 - 01:00 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Human Rights Organizations, MK Cassif Raise a Clear Voice Against the Harming of Civilians

Among the signatories to the declaration: Mothers Against Violence, Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Academy for Equality, Amnesty International Israel, BIMKOM – Planners for Planning Rights, B’Tselem, Gisha, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Parents Against Child Detention, Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, Zazim – Community Action, Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, Yesh Din, Yesh Gvul, Combatants for Peace, Mehazkim, Machsom Watch, Women Wage Peace , Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, Standing Together, Ir Amim, Emek Shaveh, The Parents Circle-Families Forum, Rabbis for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, Breaking the Silence and Torat Tzedek.

12.05.2023 - 20:40 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Protests in Israel Oppose Deadly Gaza Escalation

(11.05.2023)

Hundreds, among them Hadash and Communist Party activists, gathered opposite the headquarters of the Israeli army in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening, May 10, 2023, to rally against the military escalation in Gaza. (Photo: Zo Haderech)

At the same time, MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash-Ta’al) decried at the Knesset plenum the “massacre in Gaza,” saying that it was aimed solely at “keeping the party of racist filth in the government” — a reference to Ben Gvir and his far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.

11.02.2023 - 12:56 [ Haggai Matar, board member at the Union of Journalists in Israel / Nitter ]

Late night session at the Knesset. MK Ofer Cassif is removed from the podium for calling the new government „fascist“ and for calling for „civil rebellion“

(07.02.2023)

11.02.2023 - 12:40 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Communist MK Urges the People to Rise Up against the Far-Right Govt’

(08.02.2023)

A Communist lawmaker on Tuesday urge at the Knesset podium citizens of the nation to civil unrest against the “dictatorship” of the new Netanyahu government. MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) was quickly removed by Knesset ushers. “In light of the current emergency situation, I call for civil unrest…” Cassif said before being interrupted by Deputy Speaker Nissim Vattori (Likud), who called on Knesset ushers to forcibly remove Cassif from the plenum.

The Hadash lawmakers present at the time then erupted in a shouting match, with Cassif and fellow opposition MKs labeling the coalition members as “fascists.”

27.10.2022 - 02:53 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

MK Odeh: The Right’s Only Hope for Victory is To Suppress Arab Votes

The Hadash and Ta’al list led by Knesset members Ayman Odeh and Ahmed Tibi, released a new election campaign video urging the Arab public to vote in the elections in order to stop the right-wing parties’ intention to carry out a new Nakba.

17.01.2022 - 16:24 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Racist ‘Citizenship Law’ Advances, Months after Ban on Palestinian Spouses Lapsed

The bill was rejected by the Knesset plenum six months ago, and since then, Shaked has struggled to obtain a majority. Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) said he was determined to prevent its passage. “We toppled the Citizenship Law, because we oppose racist, anti-democratic legislation”, Odeh said. “We will do everything we can to topple it again.” According to Hadash MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash), “This Israeli law is racist, collective, pre-emptive punishment. It can neither be justified, nor redeemed.” The Joint List also oppose Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s bill on drafting yeshiva students. All parties in the coalition support the bill, including Islamist Ra’am (United Arab List).

12.05.2021 - 15:31 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

MK Odeh: As Long There is an Occupation, There’ll Be Resistance

The Joint List MKs held a press conference at the site during which Odeh expressed full support for the East Jerusalem Palestinians’ struggle: “The main point is there’s an occupation. As long as there is an occupation, there will be resistance.” Odeh continued, “This resistance becomes sharpened during periods of provocation, such as what happened over the past month,” relating to the imminent evictions of eight Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah. “Netanyahu took pride in his normalization of diplomatic ties with some Arab countries. But the youth of Jerusalem confirm yet again that the fundamental issue is the Palestinian cause… Anyone who wants live in peace and security must see themselves as part of the just cause of East Jerusalem Palestinians.”

10.04.2021 - 07:44 [ i24news.tv ]

Israel Police injure lawmaker during clashes with protesters in Jerusalem

Lawmaker Ofer Cassif, the sole Jewish member of the predominantly Arab Joint List faction, had his glasses broken and shirt torn, outlet N12 reported.

The out-of-ordinary incident occurred in a weekly rally of some hundreds of people who came to protest against the evacuation of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for Jewish residents, according to outlet Haaretz.

30.08.2020 - 11:37 [ Ben Reiff / Twitter ]

The number inside the square is again likely in the tens of thousands, and includes MK Ofer Cassif who just addressed the Hadash bloc

08.04.2020 - 16:41 [ Communist Party of Irrael ]

Hadash MK Ofer Cassif Denounces Racist Attacks on Ultra-Orthodox

A leading member of the Communist Party of Israel, Joint List MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) has denounced the growing number of attacks voiced in recent days against Israel’s ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) population, which has been hit hardest by the coronavirus, partially due to a small minority in the sector’s refusal to comply with the Health Ministry guidelines. “The guidelines must be followed. The hatred for the ultra-Orthodox must be denounced and extracted from within us, like all racism,” said Cassif.

04.09.2019 - 17:32 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Hadash MK Ofer Cassif: Netanyahu Deliberately Leading Israel to War

Hadash MK Ofer Cassif placed responsibility for the escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday, September 1, at the doorstep of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him “the serial criminal from Balfour Street.”

Cassif said “Netanyahu and his servants are responsible” for the recent clash, adding they mean to “occupy the seat of power with blood and to ensure the criminal [Netanyahu] will escape prison.”

Joint List leader, MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) agreed saying, “We will not be silent when the cannons roar” and warned that a further war “will not bring security, only death, destruction and victims on both sides.”

07.03.2019 - 16:07 [ Louis Fishman / Twitter ]

Very disturbing to hear Ofer Cassif, the Jewish candidate for Hadash has been banned from taking part in elections. Yes, try to absorb this: a Jewish candidate fighting for peace+equality is banned while fascist Kahanists are free to run. Another sad day for Israeli democracy.

07.03.2019 - 16:00 [ Haaretz ]

Israeli Arab Slate, Far-left Candidate Banned From Election Hours After Kahanist Leader Allowed to Run

The Central Election Committee disqualified the Arab joint slate Balad-United Arab List and Ofer Cassif, a member of politicial alliance Hadash-Ta‘al, from running in the election on Wednesday, opposing the opinion of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit.

02.02.2019 - 16:40 [ Kommunistische Partei von Israel ]

Odeh Reelected as Chairman of Hadash’s Parliamentary Faction

MK Aida Touma-Sliman was elected for the second spot on the Hadash slate after Farah said he was rescinding his candidacy for that position. “The fascist right is delegitimizing us,” Touma-Sliman said. “They’ve said we’re traitors and incited against us, but even in rough times we’re not afraid of Netanyahu. We’re stronger than him, because we have behind us an entire public of both Arabs and Jews who want peace, justice, liberty and democracy.”

In the third and fourth places in the Hadash list of candidates were elected Dr. Ofer Cassif, a lecturer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and MK Youssef Jabareen respectively.