Lawmakers in the Knesset House Committee came out overwhelmingly in favor of impeaching MK Ayman Odeh on Monday, in what the chairman of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party decried as an attempt to silence Arab Israelis.

Following two days of contentious debate, lawmakers, including representatives of the opposition Yesh Atid and National Unity parties, voted 14-2 in favor of impeachment. The matter will now be referred to the Knesset plenum, where 90 MKs would have to vote in favor in order to oust Odeh from the parliament.

At issue in the impeachment hearings was a statement Odeh made earlier this year that appeared to equate Israeli hostages held in Gaza by terrorists with Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel.

The Arab lawmaker drew outrage from lawmakers across the political spectrum on January 19 when he posted on X that he was “happy for the release of the hostages and prisoners” under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Odeh later defended his statement, characterizing the released Palestinian prisoners as minors and insisting that “most of the prisoners released that day were not charged with anything at all.”

While none of those released were charged with murder, several were behind failed terror attacks, including 15-year-old Mahmoud Aliowat, who was convicted of carrying out a shooting in the City of David area of Jerusalem, wounding two people, when he was 13.

In response, Likud MK Avichai Boaron earlier this month began collecting legislators’ signatures in an effort to kickstart the impeachment process, arguing that “whoever sticks a knife in the back of IDF soldiers and the State of Israel will not be a member of Knesset.”

Addressing dozens of left-wing demonstrators protesting against his impeachment outside the Knesset ahead of the vote, Odeh contended that Boaron’s push was part of a larger effort to silence Arab Israelis.

“Under the cover of this war, they want to bring us backwards, to hurt freedom of expression that we over the course of many years struggled to expand,” he charged, as demonstrators waved giant red flags with the communist hammer and sickle alongside signs in........

© The Times of Israel