Dr Ofer Cassif is a member of the Knesset for the Joint List — an alliance of the four Palestinian-majority political parties in Israel. One of the few Jewish members in the alliance, he serves as a representative of the left-wing Jabha (Hadash) coalition, an Arab-Israeli group which includes the Israeli Communist Party.

Cassif has been a political activist for decades. He was the first Israeli to be imprisoned for refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories during the First Intifada. Around the same time, he joined the Communist Party and served as parliamentary assistant for Meir Vilner, one of the party’s leading figures.

In his column for Haaretz, noted left-wing intellectual Gideon Levy has described Cassif as “a very important person” and a “Knesset leftist of a new stripe” who doesn’t mince words when it comes to taking a clear anti-Zionist stance.