Hadash, Balad MKs Vow to End the Occupation & Fight for Democracy

Communist Party of Israel

The swearing in of the 120 members of the 24th Knesset took place Tuesday afternoon, April 6, amidst the looming threat of yet a fifth election, just hours after President Reuven Rivlin mandated far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attempt to form the next governing coalition. However, when the swearing in ceremony began, four of the Joint List MKs, Ayman Odeh, Aida Touma-Sliman and Ofer Cassif, all from Hadash, along with Balad’s Sami Abu Shahadeh, declared their commitment to struggle against racism, the occupation and for democracy instead of reciting the formal pledge of loyalty as MKs in Israel’s Knesset. The four left the plenum before the singing of the national anthem HaTikva (The Hope). In response, the new Kahanist MK, the arch-racist Itamar Ben-Gvir from the Religious Zionist Party, demanded that their parliamentary membership be invalidated because their “oath was not valid.” Members of Na’amat, the Histadrut’s women’s movement, took…

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Hadash, Balad MKs Vow to End the Occupation & Fight for Democracy