‘Gaza has won, and Gaza will win’: Arab MK’s speech at anti-war rally draws outrage
https://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-has-won-and-gaza-will-win-arab-mks-speech-at-anti-war-rally-draws-outrage/
Ayman Odeh, the leader of the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al Knesset party, said at an anti-war rally in Haifa on Saturday that “Gaza has won, and Gaza will win,” drawing condemnation from the right wing.
“Israel has become a pariah state across the world, among all nations and in the West. After more than 600 days [of war], a majority among both peoples says: ‘If only those days had never happened,'” Odeh told the crowd. “It’s a historic loss to the right-wing ideology that was crushed in Gaza. Gaza won, and Gaza will win.”
The [Benjamin] Netanyahu government has normalized the war, and we will normalize the opposition to it,” he continued. “This demonstration marks a turning point in the struggle to end the war, both in the number of participants and in the sharpened political messages.”
Odeh also addressed the weekly anti-government protesters calling for a hostage-ceasefire deal. “Kudos to the demonstrators on Kaplan Street (where weekly rallies are typically held in Tel Aviv),” he said. “But you must recognize the core issue. The [judicial overhaul] stems from the occupation. There is no democracy with occupation.” Turning back to the crowd, Odeh said: “You are the overwhelming majority in the world, you are on the right side of history and the future. The Israeli government is calling for genocide, and when we say these are crimes against humanity, it gets outraged. We will say it to their face: this is genocide, this is ethnic cleansing.”
MK Ahmad Tibi, who leads the Ta’al party, which is part of a joint slate with Hadash, also gave a speech at the same rally in which he read aloud the names of the nine children of the al-Najjar family who Gazan authorities said were killed in an Israeli airstrike last week.
“Every hour, a child is killed in Gaza,” he said. “We’re here to say: stop bombing children, stop the war crimes. “This Knesset is a Kahanist Knesset,” Tibi said, referring to disciples of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane. “[Itamar Ben Gvir’s] Otzma Yehudit [party] has five or six Kahanists, but the Likud has more Kahanists.” He also likened the rhetoric of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, about the need to conquer Gaza and expel its residents, to Nazi Germany.
Responding to Odeh’s speech, Likud MK Tally Gotliv called him on X a “terror supporter” whose speech “assisted the Gazan enemy.”
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer condemned Odeh, writing on X: “It isn’t being left-wing or right-wing — it’s being pro-Israel or pro-Hamas. Whoever sides with the enemy cannot serve in the Knesset.”
Energy Minister Eli Cohen wrote on X that Odeh is “a fifth column” and that his “[parliamentary] immunity must be revoked and [he should] be sent to jail or to Gaza.”
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Odeh doubled down and hit back at his critics, writing on X: “There is, and cannot be, victory over corpses of thousands of dead children, crushed families, starving civilians and total devastation. The right conducted this war out of blind vengeance, and was defeated. It’s a defeat for Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, and anyone who thought an entire people could be defeated through starvation, bombardment and siege.
“Because annihilation is not victory. Life is victory. Only those who see Gazans as ‘terrorists from birth,’ like the government de facto does, can twist my words in this way. Yes, Gaza will win. Life will win.”
Hamas official insists group didn’t reject Witkoff’s offer, slams ‘complete bias’ toward Israel
Hamas changes to hostage deal proposal include demand for 7-year ceasefire, Israeli official says
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamas-changes-to-hostage-deal-proposal-include-demand-for-7-year-ceasefire-israeli-official-says/
Hamas has requested a ceasefire lasting up to seven years in its response to the latest hostage and ceasefire proposal from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, an Israeli official confirms to The Times of Israel.
The terror group’s response includes several edits to the framework, among them the demand for a years-long truce, a full IDF withdrawal from all territory captured since March, the cancellation of the new aid distribution model in Gaza, and a return to the previous aid mechanism, Ynet reported earlier.
A source directly involved in the negotiations told The Times of Israel earlier that Hamas demanded changes that would make it harder for Israel to resume its military campaign if talks on a permanent ceasefire are not completed by the end of the 60-day truce.
