June 30th, 2025 –
Partners for Progressive Israel calls for a halt to the expulsion procedure against Israeli Knesset member Ayman Odeh, which was advanced today out of the Knesset House Committee and is set to be voted upon by the Knesset plenum. We stand in solidarity with our partners and the Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel who are pushing back against this antidemocratic process.
MK Odeh has been an interlocutor of PPI at various times during his parliamentary service, is a trusted partner for a two-state peace and a democratic Israel, and is one of the most important political leaders of Israel’s Palestinian citizens.
The expulsion process advanced today is based upon a January social media post where the MK celebrated the release of both Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian detainees held in Israel, who were all released as part of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
We acknowledge that some detainees released in this deal were convicted on terror charges, and that the mention of their release in the same breath as civilian hostages generated pain for some members of our community. The majority of the detainees released in this exchange, however, were in fact held without charges under indefinite administrative detention by the Israeli government in violation of their civil and human rights. Furthermore, the MK’s written remarks that both Palestinians and Israelis suffer under the “burden of occupation” and that “we were all born to be free” is a truth we see manifest in the work of many of our partners on the ground.
Regardless of the emotions that MK Odeh’s remarks may engender, his words in no way support armed struggle by a terrorist organization, which is the legal criterion for expulsion. This position is backed by the Knesset’s own legal adviser and Israel’s own Deputy Attorney General, who stressed that Odeh’s statement “does not constitute grounds for expulsion”, thus rejecting the inflammatory accusations of the Knesset members backing expulsion.
MK Odeh has shown up for citizens of Israel irrespective of their ethnic or religious background, including: his steadfast support for workers’ rights, his support of Mizrahi culture within Israel’s political sphere, and his leadership against demolitions of Bedouin villages. Family members of murdered hostages in Gaza have shared their appreciation for his presence at their shiva houses, in stark contrast to many of the Likud-affiliated ministers and MKs pushing for his expulsion from the Knesset.
We cite the unequivocal remarks of MK Gilad Kariv of the HaDemocratim party, who pointed out the discriminatory and political nature behind the expulsion campaign: “They’re sending a very clear message to two million Arab citizens – you’re second-class citizens, your vote doesn’t matter, we don’t want you as part of the political system… It started with Netanyahu in 2015 [saying] ‘the Arabs are flocking to the polls’ and it continues with Binyamin Netanyahu forging an alliance with Kahanists.” Kariv added that the expulsion proceedings are “designed to delegitimize all the Arab Knesset members and essentially the entire Arab community”.
PPI Executive Director Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson said, “Tolerance for deep critique and the capacity to insist upon peace in the midst of a brutal war are measures of a healthy and functioning democracy— the Knesset’s procedures against Ayman Odeh are yet another warning sign of eroding democratic norms in Israel. We stand with MK Odeh and call for the immediate cessation of his expulsion procedure. These votes are far more reflective of discrimination and an ideological opposition to the rights of Palestinians inside and beyond Israel’s borders than they are of any meaningful governmental operation.”
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