MK Ofer Cassif asked in a radio interview whether Hamas is a terrorist group and replies, “The answer is complex,” while clarifying that attacks on innocent civilians constitute terrorism.
MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) declined to give a clear answer when asked whether Hamas is a terrorist organization during an interview Monday afternoon on Radio 103FM.
The question was posed by hosts Arieh Eldad and Shai Golden. Cassif responded, “The answer to that is more complex,” but added, “Ideologically, Hamas does not align with us. We all know that those murdered by Hamas during its coup against the Palestinian Authority were Fatah members. The accusations against us of supporting Hamas are completely false.”
He continued: “Any attack on innocent civilians is terrorism – including what Hamas did on October 7 – regardless of who commits it. It could be Hamas, it could be the IDF. There are organizations that carry out acts of terrorism, but do not engage exclusively in terrorism.”
Toward the end of the interview, Cassif drew a comparison between Arab terrorist organizations and the Zionist paramilitary groups Lehi and Etzel, which operated against the British Mandate prior to Israel’s establishment. Eldad interrupted, saying, “Don’t mix impurity with sanctity. Enough people already hate you justifiably without you bringing Lehi into this.”
Cassif replied, “If you hate me, then why are you talking to me? Let’s end this here.” Eldad concluded, “I really debated whether we even have common ground for a conversation. It turns out we don’t. Thank you very much.”
Cassif, the sole Jewish MK in Hadash-Ta’al, has repeatedly drawn criticism for his anti-Israel statements, including comparisons of Israeli leaders and even the State of Israel to the Nazi party and Nazi-era Germany.
In March of 2023, the Knesset Ethics Committee decided to temporarily suspend Cassif from the plenary following a verbal confrontation in which he called MK Almog Cohen, among other things, a “stinking Nazi”, “zero”, “stupid” and “bloodthirsty”.
Cassif once shared a Facebook post calling Ayelet Shaked, who at the time was serving as Justice Minister, a “neo-Nazi scum”.
In 2017, he was recorded during a class comparing the State of Israel to Nazi Germany, warning that Israel was “on a slippery slope” to fascism.
