Israel’s Knesset on Monday will vote for the first time ever to impeach a fellow member of Knesset, Ofer Cassif of the Hadash-Ta’al party, over his expression of support of South Africa’s petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague that Israel was committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Cassif’s impeachment was approved on January 10 in the Knesset House Committee and must receive 90 votes on Monday’s vote in the Knesset plenum in order to come into effect. The impeachment was proposed by Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, and it is not clear whether or not the 90-MK threshold will be reached. If it is reached, Cassif will have 48 hours to appeal the decision in Israel’s Supreme Court.
The petition that Cassif signed in December said that “Israel is indeed taking methodological and fundamental steps to erase, starve, abuse, and expel the population of Gaza. It actualizes a policy of erasing possibilities of living, which leads to genocide. It methodologically kills broad swaths of the population, leading academics, authors, doctors, medical teams, journalists, and simple citizens.”
According to the quasi-constitutional Basic Law Knesset, a member of the Knesset may be impeached for “supported armed struggle, by an enemy state or terrorist organization, against the State of Israel.” While Forer and other MKs argued that supporting a claim of genocide effectively supported Hamas’ efforts, Cassif’s lawyer and legal advisors from both the Knesset and government argued that as damaging as Cassif’s comments were, he did not actually support armed struggle, and therefore does not meet the legal requirement for impeachment. The legal advisors also pointed out that Cassif can only be impeached for actions committed during the current Knesset – and therefore, any actions or sayings prior to November of last year cannot be taken into account.
Forer reiterated his argument in a letter to Knesset members on Sunday evening, saying that Cassif’s actions “endangered hundreds of thousands of our soldiers at the front, who, if the petition at the Hague is accepted, will be exposed to arrests and petitions in courts around the world.”
Knesset prepares for unprecedented procedure
Earlier on Sunday, Knesset legal advisor Sagit Afek reiterated her position in a letter to the members of Knesset, saying that the procedure was “unprecedented” since it was meant for extreme scenarios only in order to prevent a majority from abusing its power in the Knesset. There was “considerable difficulty” in arriving at the conclusion that Cassif’s actions qualified as support for armed struggle, Afek wrote.
The impeachment vote has political ramifications, as it is likely to split both the coalition and opposition.
Most of the pre-war coalition’s 64 MKs have said they will support impeachment – but some, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have not yet said what their vote will be. The National Unity party, which joined the government after the war broke out on October 11, is likely to enable a free vote for its members. Party leader Benny Gantz, as well as party members Gadi Eisenkot and Chili Tropper, are not likely to support impeachment, while MKs Gideon Sa’ar and Ze’ev Elkin are likely to support it. In the opposition, Yesh Atid will also allow a free vote, and party chairman MK Yair Lapid said that he would not support the move.
