Ofer Cassif, one of the two Israeli lawmakers expelled from the Knesset on Monday, October 13, after displaying a placard reading “genocide” during US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace speech, is known as one of Israel’s most outspoken left-wing Jewish politicians.
Born in 1964, Cassif, aged 60, is a member of the Hadash alliance, a left-wing political coalition that brings together Jewish and Arab activists under the Communist Party of Israel (Maki) and other progressive movements. He has served in the Knesset since April 2019, representing the party’s commitment to social justice, equality, and opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
Cassif, an academic by training, previously lectured in political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has written extensively on political philosophy and human rights. Over the years, he has gained both attention and criticism for his sharp rebukes of Israel’s military policies in Gaza and the West Bank, calling them “moral and political disasters.”
During Trump’s Knesset address on the Gaza peace deal, Cassif joined fellow Hadash leader Ayman Odeh in raising a sign that read “genocide,” protesting what they called the “mass killing of civilians” in Gaza following Israel’s military campaign that killed over 65,000 Palestinians since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that claimed 1,200 Israeli lives.
Both lawmakers were quickly escorted out by Knesset security, in what has since become a defining moment of parliamentary dissent, reflecting the deep political and moral divisions within Israel over its Gaza policy and the global response to the new peace framework.
