The Knesset House Committee, in a noteworthy development on Monday, supported the ejection of Ayman Odeh, a Knesset member and the leader of the chiefly Israeli Palestinian party Hadash-Ta’al. If Odeh’s expulsion is ratified by 90 out of the 120 legislators, he will hold the right to appeal to the Supreme Court. A House Committee session that had occurred earlier on June 21 comprised startling remarks by Osher Shkalim, a representative of the Likud Party, helmed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, directed at Odeh: ‘In a different country, you would have been subjected to a firing squad.’
Allegedly, Odeh’s ‘offense’ was a social media publication in January, wherein he expressed his joy over the liberation of ‘captives and prisoners’, coveting freedom for both Palestinians and Israelis from the prevalent occupation. This act is taken as a warning sign suggesting that the Israeli state is bracing itself for a drastic crackdown on Palestinian citizens who constitute 20 percent of the national population. This signals a possibility of an increasingly ferocious offensive, including potential military attacks on Iran.
However, it’s worth noting that the dispute concerning Odeh’s expulsion, which started on June 21, was to be confined to his January social media comments, whereas his speech delivered in Haifa to a crowd of 2,000 on May 31 should not have been brought into questioning. A second appeal aiming his expulsion was submitted in June, however, it was dismissed due to certain procedural discrepancies.
In his Haifa’s speech, Odeh labeled the US-Israel war in Gaza as a ‘historic defeat of the right’, adding that ‘Gaza has triumphed and will continue winning’. He urged protestors seeking a hostage deal to join hands with those advocating for peace. He emphasized that the governmental attempts to reform the judiciary could only be countered by ceasing the occupation of Palestinian territories.
Odeh’s address to Haifa also included the proposition of founding a Palestinian state. He patted the protesters on the back by saying that they are ‘the overwhelming majority in the world’ and are ‘on the right side of history and the future’. He criticized the Israeli government’s agenda, stating that ‘their call for the extermination of a people… is no less than genocide or ethnic cleansing’.
Ophir Katz, representative of the Likud party and the Committee’s chair, denounced Odeh’s presence and labeled him as a ‘terrorist’. He expressed his distress over Odeh sitting with them and pointed Odeh as a primary threat. Katz took a strong stance against Odeh’s support for Gaza and questioned Odeh’s lack of labeling of Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist groups, critically highlighting that Odeh seems to be justifying their maneuvers.
In his defense, Odeh highlighted the incendiary statement from the committee’s chair labeling him as the ‘eighth front’, terming it as an invitation for his assassination. Aida Touma-Sliman, a fellow Hadash-Ta’al member, also expressed her discontentment over the proceedings, considering them beyond any judicial methods.
Touma-Sliman’s disappointment refers to the government’s moves to outlaw parties representing Israeli Palestinians, under a Bill aiming to restrict candidates or party listings that back ‘lone attackers’ from running for elections unless their eligibility has been approved by the Supreme Court.
Within the framework of Israel’s ‘Nation-State’ law, which effectually promotes apartheid-style discrimination and segregation, Palestinian Israelis are held as second-class citizens. Their regions and localities bear the burden of inequality, strikingly evident in the provision of finance for education, health, welfare, housing, and public and social infrastructure.
The preceding weeks have seen the Palestinian Israelis on their own. The 2018 State Comptroller’s report revealed that out of 71 municipalities housing Palestinians, about 60 lacked public shelters. This negligence resulted in the death of four Palestinians in Tamra when their housing block was hit by an Iranian missile. The Palestinian residents had to face Iron Dome interceptors being exploded overhead, showering them with lethal splinters.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have bolstered their strategies to displace around 2,500 Palestinian inhabitants of several villages in Masafer Yatta, a southern West Bank region. At the outset of May, the IDF demolished a majority of Khilet Al-Dabe’. A recent military edict, grounded on IDF’s war plans against Iran, has outlined that it is of utmost importance to evacuate the region’s residents.
Bezalel Smotrich, the influential leader of the Religious Zionism Party and the Finance Minister, has cemented his control over construction activities in the West Bank region covering key positions with allies. His articulated objective is to augment the settlement project throughout the Land of Israel and to deter the emergence of a Palestinian terror state.
In May, the cabinet voted to administer land registration solely in Area C of the West Bank, effectively taking away the authority of the PA’s land registry, and leading to a de facto annexation of the majority of Palestinian land. This move marks a breach of international law as Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice which demanded the evacuation from all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem last July.
As per the United Nations, since October 7, 2023, Israeli settlers and the army have caused the death of over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded above 7,000 in the West Bank. Moreover, the Israeli authorities have demolished or seized 3,844 properties, including 1,376 homes, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In a grim series of events, the IDF has cleared three refugee camps in the West Bank, rendering more than 40,000 Palestinians homeless, while establishing hundreds of checkpoints.