On November 11, 2024, the Knesset Ethics Committee decided to suspend MK Ofer Cassif from Knesset sessions and committee meetings for six months. Additionally, it imposed a two-week salary suspension. This is the most severe punishment ever imposed by the Committee on a Member of Knesset. The decision followed statements by MK Cassif accusing the State of Israel and the IDF of committing serious crimes during the ongoing war and expressing support for international legal proceedings on these matters. The Ethics Committee concluded that these statements constituted “a grave breach of ethical standards, significantly undermining the MK’s duty of loyalty to promote the interests of the state.”
The Forum of Law Professors for Democracy believes that the Ethics Committee’s decision is legally flawed. An MK’s claim that a governmental body acted unlawfully, even if such a claim is incorrect, is protected under the fundamental right to freedom of expression afforded to everyone, and especially to elected officials. The appropriate response to an MK’s allegation of war crimes by the IDF is a substantive rebuttal, not punitive action. Penalizing an MK for accusing Israel of war crimes—particularly with such an extreme sanction—aligns Israel with non-democratic regimes where criticism of the government during wartime is prohibited.
Moreover, the Ethics Committee's decision regarding MK Cassif is wrong because it reflects selective enforcement of ethical standards. The ethical guidelines state that “a Member of Knesset shall fulfill their role in loyalty to the foundational values of the State of Israel.” Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, several MKs have called for indiscriminate harm to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, statements that contradict Israel's foundational values. The Ethics Committee's decision to act against MK Cassif’s remarks, while ignoring calls by other MKs advocating actions that constitute war crimes, demonstrates discriminatory enforcement, rendering the Committee's decision unlawful.
The Forum calls on the Knesset to overturn the Ethics Committee's decision regarding MK Cassif and to safeguard the freedom of expression of all MKs, including their right to criticize government policies, whether such criticism is justified or mistaken.
Representing over 800 law professors and human rights experts from international academic institutions, we the undersigned submitted to UN independent experts, Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, an urgent appeal for release of the hostages kidnapped in Israel and held by Hamas in Gaza. Enforced disappearance of persons, when carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, is a crime against humanity.
On 7th October 2023, Hamas terrorists, using the same tactics as ISIS, carried out a murderous attack on Israeli civilians. They raided villages and towns on the border with Gaza and shot, burned, or beheaded at least 1,300 women, men and children, including 40 babies. They slaughtered 260 of the 3,000 young people who were participating in a music festival nearby. During the attack, Hamas kidnapped at least 150 people, including elderly women, children and infants, including citizens of Israel and of other countries, and dragged them into Gaza. The photos and videos, documented by the perpetrators or by witnesses, of sexual violence committed against the women, of kidnapped mothers with children, infants without parents, elderly men and women, bleeding women, and the body of a naked woman - are shocking and devastating. Hamas is refusing requests, including of the ICRC, to reveal the identity of the abductees, their location, and their medical condition. The abductees are defined according to international law as victims of serious human rights abuses, including as victims of enforced disappearance of civilians, and as hostages. Hamas which functions as the de facto government in Gaza, has condoned the massacre and the abductions.
On 12th October, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the immediate release of all the hostages held in Gaza, saying international humanitarian law must be respected and upheld.
UN independent experts, Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, unequivocally condemned targeted and deadly violence directed at civilians in Israel and called for the immediate release of the hostages, particularly women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities and those who are gravely ill. The experts said: “We strongly condemn the horrific crimes committed by Hamas, the deliberate and widespread killing and hostage-taking of innocent civilians, including older persons and children. These actions constitute heinous violations of international law and international crimes, for which there must be urgent accountability,” …. “Taking hostages in the context of hostilities constitutes a war crime. The civilians taken by Hamas must be immediately released, pending which their fate and whereabouts must be disclosed.”
Following these unequivocal calls from UN bodies for the urgent release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas from Israel and held in Gaza, we appeal to your country to take all possible measures to bring about their immediate release. Amongst other things, we ask you to consider the possibility of designating Hamas as a terror organization; suspending any funding that may reach the hands of Hamas and freezing its bank accounts; exercising universal jurisdiction against Hamas leaders or operatives; or appealing to the International Criminal Court to initiate proceeding against them; and referring the matter to the Security Council for further action.
October 23, 2023: Over 680 legal experts from Israel and around the world joined the call on international bodies to act immediately for the return of the abductees, held incommunicado as hostages by Hamas which functions as the de facto government in Gaza, including, in particular, children and toddlers, women, the elderly and the disabled. Their signatures are available at the end of this post. In addition, over 128 human rights experts and scholars joined their voices to this urgent appeal,
The following is a letter sent by over 200 human rights law professors from around the world, some of whom are members of the Israeli Law Professors' Forum for Democracy.
October 9, 2023
An Urgent Appeal from Law Professors
To: OHCHR
To: The CEDAW Committee of the United Nations (also the Children's Committee)
To: The Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council and especially the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls (also WG on Enforced Disappearances).
Re: An urgent call for your immediate action to free all the Israeli and other citizens who were kidnapped by the Hamas terror organization and, in particular, to do everything in your power to put an end to the vicious and inhumane capture, violence, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of women and girls, children and infants.
1. We, the undersigned, law professors from around the globe, appeal to your urgent consideration.
2. For the last few days, the citizens of the State of Israel have been under a murderous and barbaric attack, with Hamas using the same terror tactics as ISIS, and these were apparently condoned by the leadership of Hamas which is the de facto representative of the Gaza Strip.
3. Hamas fighters took control of kibbutzim and towns and then went from house to house and slaughtered entire families. They raided an outdoor party attended by crowds of young civilians, slaughtering and capturing them indiscriminately, hunting them down as they fled and shooting them leaving behind 260 bodies of young people.
4. During the attack, Hamas kidnapped an unknown number of people elderly people, women, children and infants. The photos and videos, documented by the perpetrators or by witnesses, that have already been published on social media and in international media of kidnapped mothers with children, elderly men and women, bleeding women, and the body of a naked woman - are shocking and devastating - bringing a CNN reporter to tears.
5. Hamas is hiding the identity of most of the abductees, their location, their medical condition and their fate. The abductees are defined according to international law as victims of enforced disappearance. That is as defined in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (2006) and in the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (A/RES/47/133). These acts constitute blatant violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. International human rights law obligations to release civilian hostages, including women, girls, children and babies, and to treat them humanely in the interim, apply equally to all parties to a conflict.
6. Beyond the fact that there is a real and imminent danger that the abductees will continue to be tortured, raped and murdered, there is also a real fear that Hamas will trade the Israeli abductees with other Palestinian terrorist organizations (it has already announced that 30 of them have been handed to the Islamic Jihad) and even to terrorist organizations in other countries, which will increase the difficulty of tracing and releasing them.
7. It seems that among the abductees there are non-Jews as well as Jews, those with Canadian, US, EU, the Philippines and Thai citizenships as well as Israeli citizens.
8. Therefore, and in the hope and in prayer that it is still not too late - we call for your immediate action to free, in any way possible, all the Israeli and other citizens who were kidnapped by Hamas and have disappeared.
9. In the name of international law and humanity, we hope that you will do everything in your power to end these vicious and blatant acts of extreme violence against women and girls from a few months old to 85 years old.
Photos and videos, documented by the perpetrators or by witnesses, published on social media: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 (#9 year old girl hostage – Hebrew).
