Israel's democracy robbers seek to silence Palestinian opponents

Arab News

22-07-2025

https://arab.news/2wghm
For those of you who are not familiar with the Palestinian member of the Knesset Ayman Odeh, he is a rare combination of a thinker, a passionate politician and an extremely affable person. He can also be sharp-tongued and unsparing of rivals from his opinions, including his fellow Palestinian citizens of Israel, but especially those among Israeli society whose idea of coexistence is of Jewish supremacy on either side of the Green Line. Above all, he is a man of peace and great integrity who believes in Israeli-Palestinian coexistence as equals, of which a two-state solution is a key element.
Odeh has rattled the political system to the extent that a right-wing Likud MK, Avichai Boaron, initiated his impeachment for writing on X in January that 'I am happy about the release of the hostages and the prisoners. We must now free both peoples from the burden of occupation. Because we were all born free.' Not a sentiment that was particularly harsh, and surely not an incitement to violence.
It is difficult to know whether this was a case of an anonymous member of parliament trying to get some attention or whether, as Boaron claimed, Odeh was equating the hostages with Palestinian 'terrorists' and if the call to free people from 'the burden of occupation' constituted a legitimization and call for violence. Obviously, mentioning both the hostages and the prisoners in the same sentence does not mean equating them, and in any case there is nothing illegal about that.
Worse, one MK who fails to understand the difference between calling to end the occupation and calling to do that by using force is unfortunate. But for 70 MKs, of whom at least 10 are from the opposition, as the law requires, to sign a petition asking the Knesset House Committee to open impeachment proceedings is a collective eclipse of democratic judgment.
And in the Orwellian atmosphere of today's Israeli politics, the Knesset House Committee decided, while brushing aside the recommendation of the Knesset's legal adviser to the contrary — for lack of legal grounds to justify such an extreme step — to advance the impeachment of Odeh to a vote in the Knesset plenum, citing his 'support for the armed struggle of a terrorist organization against the state of Israel.'
Although not part of the original accusations against the leader of Hadash, his cause was not helped by his own recent statement at a rally that 'Gaza won and Gaza will win.' This was more a case of simply hoping that the people of the Strip would prevail despite the mass killings and devastation inflicted on them for many months, and the attempts to force Gaza's residents into to a tiny part of the territory and then possibly out of it, and for good — not for them to militarily defeat Israel.
The only reason Odeh is still an MK is that 90 MKs are required to support this bluntly antidemocratic measure and 'only' 73 out of 120 supported this shameful motion in a vote in the Knesset. The very fact there was such a big majority in favor of expelling a lawmaker for expressing his views — which admittedly many might find offensive but do not meet the criteria of inciting to violence or endangering the country's security — is more a testimony to the sorry state of Israeli democracy than Odeh's alleged threat to the state.
And it is especially in times of war that the pluralism of ideas should be maintained and minorities should not be excluded from expressing their ideas. After all, many of the Palestinian citizens of Israel have relatives in Gaza, of whom thousands have been killed in the war. However, the story is not only about Odeh, but also his detractors questioning the legitimacy of the entire Palestinian population of Israel, who are citizens and, in principle, enjoy equal rights to their Jewish fellow countrymen, although reality is very different.
It would be naive to harbor any expectations that the current members of Israel's governing coalition would respect democratic procedures if they did not suit them. For nearly three years, they have repeatedly demonstrated a destructive mixture of utter ignorance of the very fundamentals of a liberal democracy and sheer contempt for them. However, the fact that several so-called more liberal-minded members of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party supported the motion to impeach Odeh — while Lapid and the rest of his party's MKs, along with those of Benny Gantz's Blue and White-National Unity party, boycotted the vote — is beyond disappointing and concerning.
With the exception of the left-wing Democrats led by Yair Golan, who voted against impeaching Odeh, the other Zionist parties' behavior illustrates that, for them, championing freedoms does not extend to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, exemplifying the constant retreat of Israeli democracy from the Israeli Declaration of Independence. In the middle of a truly existential war, its founding fathers included a commitment that the country 'will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.' The founding fathers understood that there is no partial democracy; it either applies equally to everyone, or it is not a liberal democracy.
It is especially in times of war that the pluralism of ideas should be maintained and minorities should not be excluded.
Yossi Mekelberg
And there is also the tragic irony, or just the shamelessness, that many of those who voted to oust Odeh for supporting political violence nevertheless encourage the use of unabated violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Among them are settlers who illegally live in the West Bank, a minister of national security who was convicted of supporting a terrorist organization, and those who repeatedly say that there are no innocent people in Gaza, support starving and expelling them and, given an opportunity, would do exactly the same in the West Bank too.
Yet, no one even suggests reprimanding them, let alone impeaching them, because their discourse has been normalized and legitimized over recent years. Also normalized is the exclusion of parties that represent the Palestinians citizens of Israel, preventing them from serving in government as legitimate partners.
Odeh was not impeached. However, this saga has left the bitter taste of a country whose lawmakers persecute their political opponents and especially target a minority through very dubious legal procedures. In Odeh's case, the Knesset's blushes were spared, but only thanks to the wisdom of yesteryear's legislatures, which set the bar very high for ousting an MK. But this is hardly any consolation. As long as Benjamin Netanyahu and his democracy robbers hold on to power, it is just a matter of time before they seek to water down this too in order to eliminate their political rivals.