MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) on Thursday accused the IDF of ongoing "massacres" against Palestinian Arabs in order to promote what he described as the "regime coup".
In a tweet he posted following the counterterrorism operation in Jenin in which ten Palestinian Arabs, most of them terrorists, were killed, Cassif wrote, "The ongoing massacre in the occupied territories is political cynicism aimed at breaking the protest against the coup d'état and is intended to prepare an infrastructure for justifying another Nakba."
"This is the malicious government's plan: To massacre the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories and to plunder the Arab citizens inside the Green Line using the National Guard of the Ben Gvir gang. We will not let them do so," he added.
On Thursday evening, MK Cassif participated in a demonstration in Haifa organized by Hadash and the Communist Party, during which he waved a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag.
According to a press release sent to the Kul al-Arab news website, the Haifa police chief demanded that Cassif remove the flag, and even resorted to using force, but Cassif insisted on his right to raise the flag and read to the officers the instructions of Attorney General regarding the flag. The statement also said that the police forces withdrew and the dozens of activists continued the demonstration.
In this context, MK Cassif said, "The Palestinian flag is a flag that symbolizes the just struggle for liberation and freedom, and it is the duty of freedom seekers to express solidarity with it. I will continue to wave the flag and demonstrate against the occupation for the sake of a just peace between the two peoples."
Cassif, a Hebrew University professor who is the sole Jewish representative in the Hadash faction of the Joint List, 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.
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 December of 2019, Cassif said that Israel should not be compared to an apartheid state because, he claimed, it is “worse than apartheid”.
Last August, Cassif took part in a demonstration by Arabs at the Tomb of Shmuel Hanavi near Jerusalem which ended in a brutal attack on a Jew who waved the Israeli flag.
Cassif was documented as he told the Arabs, "I assure you that we continue the fight against the occupation and against these dirty people and together we will win, this is not a fight between Jews and Arabs, it is a fight between those who fight for justice and those who commit crimes. We are with you against the criminals.''
The Israel Police launched a probe into Cassif’s statements, but the State Prosecution decided to close the case, citing "a lack of basis for criminal suspicion that would justify such an investigation."