A member of the Knesset, the legislative authority and the sole governmental body with the power of legislation within the Israeli Regime, Ofer Cassif, has come under fire with calls for expulsion from office on Monday Jan.8, a day after the Israeli lawmaker declared that he would back South Africa’s genocide case against the occupation entity at the International Court of Justice. 

In his statement on Sunday Jan.7, Cassif stated, “My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide.”

Cassif is reportedly the sole Jewish representative in the majority Arab Hadash-Ta’al Party. He further said that it was right-wing lawmakers and high-ranking officials under the Netanyahu government who are supporting the onslaught on Gaza “who hurt the country and the people, they are the ones who led South Africa to turn to The Hague, not me and my friends.”

“And when the government acts against society, the state and its citizens, especially when it sacrifices them and commits crimes in their name on the altar of maintaining its existence,” he added, “it is my right and even my duty to warn about this and do everything I can within the law to stop it.”

“I will not give up the fight for our existence as a moral society,” the statement concluded. “This is true patriotism—no revenge wars and calls for extermination, no unnecessary bloodshed, and no sacrifice of kidnapped citizens and soldiers in false wars.”

In retaliation to Cassif’s statement, MK Oded Forer of the Yisrael Beytenu party alongside other members, called for Cassif’s removal and even expulsion from the occupation entity. 

“MK Cassif, who in the past was declared unfit to run for the Knesset due to a petition that I submitted to the Central Elections Committee, chose, during wartime, to join one of the most destructive initiatives for the State of Israel’s security, thus supporting Hamas’ war against Israel,” Forer said. 

In a quest to hasten the removal process, Forer claimed that he has commenced collecting the necessary 70 signatures from members.

“He must quickly find himself outside the borders of the Knesset,” Foder said, “and it would be best if he were also outside the borders of the State of Israel.”

The Israeli regime has now killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, and continues to severely limit the flow of humanitarian aid and fuel into the Palestinian territory. More than 58,000 people are injured and more than 7000 people are still missing, further pushing Gaza to the brink of collapse. 

The International Court of Justice, the highest UN legal body, will hold hearings this week on a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide. The case seeks emergency suspension of its military campaign on Gaza.