The Knesset Home Committee held an impeachment hearing against Hadash-Ta’al MK Ayman Odeh on Tuesday, after Likud MK Avichay Boaron in recent weeks collected 70 signatures from MKs in favor of launching the procedure.
The hearing recessed without holding a vote and will continue on Monday.
The hearing in the Home Committee is legally considered “pseudo-judicial,” and, as such, Odeh was represented by lawyer Hassan Jabareen, the general director of the NGO Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
According to the quasi-constitutional Basic Law: The Knesset, a member of Knesset may be impeached for “supported armed struggle, by an enemy state or terrorist organization, against the State of Israel.”
Launching the impeachment process requires 70 signatures, including at least 10 from the opposition, after which, the MK is given the opportunity to argue his or her case in the Knesset Home Committee. If the impeachment is approved in the committee, it reaches the Knesset plenum, where it must receive at least 90 votes. If impeached, the MK can appeal to the High Court.
The process has never been completed before. The closest it came was in February 2024, when a measure to impeach Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif reached the plenum but failed after receiving 85 votes.
The factual basis of the impeachment was itself a contentious matter. Boaron initiated the process in January, after Odeh wrote on X/Twitter after Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage deal, “Happy about the release of hostages and [Palestinian] prisoners, from here both peoples need to be freed from the burden of the occupation, we were born free.”
Boaron argued at the time that the equation of the hostages and Palestinian terrorists, as well as a call to “free the burden of occupation,” constituted a legitimization and call for violence.
In January, however, Boaron did not receive the requisite number of signatures. He revived the procedure in early June after Odeh said during a protest, “After 600 days – there is an overwhelming majority among both peoples saying: If only these 20 months had never happened. This is a historic defeat for the Right, which was defeated in Gaza. Gaza won, and Gaza will win.”
Notably, the renewed procedure received the support of opposition MKs from three different parties – Yisrael Beytenu, National Unity, and Yesh Atid.
Odeh's controversial statements land him in Knesset trouble
The Knesset legal advisory team stressed that all of the signatures needed to be relevant to the statement in question, and the signatures from January could not apply retroactively to the June statement at the protest. Therefore, the legal team clarified that the only relevant statement was the one in June.
MKs from the coalition in the discussion still repeatedly mentioned numerous other statements by Odeh, despite them not being an official part of the impeachment claim. Boaron argued that other statements by Odeh “radiate” on the statement in question, and were therefore legitimate.
Notably, the hearing was held despite a directive by Knesset Speaker and Likud MK Amit Ohana limiting Knesset activity only to issues related to the war against Iran.
“For years, and through numerous statements, Ayman Odeh has praised terrorists, their dispatchers, and their family members – either casually or directly – while carefully treading the fine line between freedom of expression and incitement or sedition. For years, Odeh has served in the Knesset, on one hand, and on the other, has lent support to terror and armed struggle against the State of Israel,” Boaron said.
“Over the years, Odeh’s statements were met with tolerance and acceptance – no more,” he added.
Odeh countered that Boaron was trying to silence him because he always spoke to both peoples.
Even my tweet was written in Hebrew, and spoke about the right of both peoples to live in freedom, dignity, and equality. It is not extreme to fight for the rights of both peoples. What’s extreme is supporting a regime of Jewish supremacy – like you do,” Odeh said.
“This moral voice – a voice that is a global consensus – is considered extreme only in the State of Israel. I’m not the extremist here – you are,” Odeh continued. “I am proud of my position. I do not retract, I do not apologize, and I will continue to struggle, together with my partners, until we build a different future here – a better future for all of us: to live in peace, in security, in equality, and in true democracy.”
Odeh’s lawyer Jabareen reiterated in his argument that he had only prepared a defense for Odeh’s January post on X, and that MKs could not bring up other statements of Odeh’s as evidence.
Jabareen added that judicial precedent showed that the bar to impeach a member of Knesset was even higher than the bar to open a criminal investigation, and the fact that Odeh’s post was not investigated showed that there was no basis for impeachment.
Furthermore, the post did not include identifying with a terror organization nor a call for violence, Jabareen argued.
Jabareen added that judicial precedent was that the sanction of impeaching an MK must be proportional, in that it must only be applied if other, less extreme means could be used.
Jabareen pointed out that on Monday, just one day before the hearing, Odeh was sanctioned by the Knesset Ethics Committee for statements accusing Israel of war crimes, and that there was no reason why the current issue could not be resolved in the Knesset Ethics Committee as well.
Both Jabareen and Odeh were repeatedly disrupted, including by comments from coalition MKs, including a call from an undetermined MK that Odeh needed to be “out in front of a firing squad,” a statement by Likud MK Ariel Kallner that he should say “hello to [assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah,” and a statement by Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech that there was “no one innocent in Gaza.”