MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu), chairman of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, on Tuesday commented in an interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News on the six-month suspension of MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash-Ta’al) from the Knesset.
The Knesset Ethics Committee decided on Monday that Cassif will be removed from the Knesset for a period of six months and will be denied two weeks' salary.
The punishment, the longest in the history of the Ethics Committee, came after Cassif joined the proceedings against Israel in The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and accused IDF soldiers and the State of Israel of massacring Palestinian Arabs and committing war crimes.
Forer told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News that "the Knesset should have acted a long time ago to remove him from his position permanently."
"It's too little and too late. We only needed five more votes to remove Cassif from the Knesset,” added Forer, referring to the vote in the Knesset earlier this year to impeach Cassif, which failed to pass. “There is no place for someone who supports a violent resistance against the State of Israel over and over again. Unfortunately, what is being done here, now, is a sign that Israeli democracy needs to tow a clear line against incitement and support for an armed resistance."
He noted that the law in the State of Israel requires that any such call be denounced, but added that "this line should be preserved and not be blurred by petty politics."
Cassif, the sole Jewish MK in Hadash-Ta’al, said in response to the decision to suspend him for six months, "A decision of nationalist political censorship. My punishment is a continuation of the political persecution of opponents of the war and critics of Netanyahu's bloody rule.”
Cassif has repeatedly drawn criticism for his anti-Israel statements, including comparisons of Israeli leaders and even the State of Israel to the Nazi party and Nazi-era Germany.
In March of 2023, the Knesset Ethics Committee decided to temporarily suspend Cassif from the plenary following a verbal confrontation in which he called MK Almog Cohen, among other things, a "stinking Nazi", "zero", "stupid" and "bloodthirsty".
Cassif once shared a Facebook post calling Ayelet Shaked, who at the time was serving as Justice Minister, a “neo-Nazi scum”.
In 2017, he was recorded during a class comparing the State of Israel to Nazi Germany, warning that Israel was “on a slippery slope” to fascism.
In the interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Forer also commented on a bill he has proposed which would outlaw denial of the October 7th massacre. He stated that the proposal is intended to protect the memory of the victims and to ensure that the State of Israel will not stand by in the face of attempts to deny or distort what happened.
"Just as the world fights against Holocaust denial, so we must be pioneers in the fight against the denial of the October 7th massacre," Forer said.
He further noted that the law that seeks to ban the denial of the massacre is based on the Holocaust Denial Prohibition Law which was enacted in 1986.
Hebrew interview with MK Oded Forer: