Knesset MP Ofer Cassif on the Need for Palestinian Liberation
Ofer Cassif, among the few Israeli MPs to openly reject Zionism, tells Jacobin that Palestinian liberation is indispensable to peace and justice for all people in the region.
Knesset member Ofer Cassif argues that any responsible Israeli policy must begin with Palestinian self-determination. (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP via Getty Images)
Ofer Cassif stands almost alone inside the Israeli Knesset.
The only openly anti-Zionist member of parliament, he has been suspended multiple times for his dissent — including a six-month ban earlier this year for supporting South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at The Hague. Cassif, a philosophy lecturer turned lawmaker, has become a rare moral voice in a political landscape dominated by militarism and fear.
During Donald Trump’s address to the Knesset following the Gaza ceasefire talks, Cassif held up a banner reading “Recognize Palestine.” Within seconds, security guards escorted him out of the chamber. To many, it was a symbolic act of conscience — a defiant gesture amid the thunder of applause for Trump and Netanyahu.
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