Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky on Sunday submitted a complaint to the Knesset’s Ethics Committee against MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash-Ta’al) for telling a Jewish youth in Jerusalem he should die soon.
On Thursday, a Jewish demonstrator yelled at Cassif: “You are an Ocher Israel (troubler of Israel), Jews are being murdered here, my friend was murdered here.” To which the MK replied: “May it soon happen to you, too.”
Cassif later told Ynet his statement had been taken out of context, and he had no intention to apologize.
The Arab Communist Party’s only Jewish MK was protesting the removal of an Arab squatter from a Jewish-owned apartment. Cassif also fought with a policeman who tried to take away the PLO flag he was carrying.
The term “troubler of Israel” was first used by King Ahab against the prophet Elijah (I Kings 18:17-18): “When Ahab caught sight of Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is that you, the troubler of Israel?’ He retorted, ‘It is not I who have brought trouble on Israel, but you and your father’s House, by forsaking the commandments of God and going after the Baal idols.’”
Cassif, 58, was the first to be jailed for refusing to serve in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip during the first intifada. After his release, became close to Hadash, the Arab communist movement. After Hadash’s previous Jewish MK, Dov Hanin, resigned, the party picked Cassif to replace him as their token Jew. But while Hanin is remembered as an eloquent speaker and practical and effective legislator, Cassif has been little more than a provocative, occasionally violent bully. On March 6, 2019, the Knesset Central Election Committee decided to disqualify him from running for the Knesset, but the Supreme Court revoked the disqualification as it has traditionally done regarding extremist Arab lists candidates – while disqualifying several right-wing candidates.
On September 8, 2021, Cassif called the six terrorists who escaped from Gilboa prison “political prisoners,” comparing them to Nelson Mandela and Irgun fighter Meir Feinstein who committed suicide in his cell after being sentenced to death by hanging.
