LIKE MANY ISRAELIS, Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, knew people killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. “One of them was a very dear close friend of mine,” Cassif told Sojourners. “She actually texted me from the security room minutes before she was killed with her husband.” Many progressive, anti-occupation Israeli peace activists lived in the region where Hamas killed more than 700 civilians in one day. Cassif, whose grandparents came to Israel from Poland in 1934 as part of the Zionist movement, is a secular Israeli Marxist and a leading voice against the war in Gaza. During the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987, Cassif refused Israeli military service in the Occupied Territories and was incarcerated in military prison. In 2019, he was elected to Israel’s parliament as the only Jewish member of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party. In January, Cassif publicly supported South Africa’s petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to investigate Israel for violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza. In February, some parliament members tried — unsuccessfully — to impeach him. For this interview I spoke with Cassif in late March over WhatsApp. It was nearly midnight in Israel. He was still sipping his yerba mate through a metal straw.
Do you hold Hamas responsible for the Oct. 7 attack? Yes. Obviously, I hold Hamas responsible. That’s not to say that the government of [Benjamin] Netanyahu is not responsible in some respects, too. But definitely the guilt, the blame, is on those who killed, on those who raped, on those who tortured, and torched. And those are Hamas’ people.
Why do you support the petition before the ICJ to investigate Israel for genocide in Gaza? I do not trust the Israeli government or Hamas or any other government to investigate itself. The ICJ is the authoritative branch to investigate allegations of genocide. Israel recognized its authority in 1949, when Israel became one of the first states to ratify the convention. The bottom line is to support the ICJ in calling on Israel to stop the war — to save lives, as simple as that. The more than 30,000 deaths in Gaza, most of them women and children, the disease and starvation, this is totally the blame of the government of Israel. And it should be stopped. Stopping the assault on Gaza is the only way to save the Israeli hostages. There’s no military way to release the hostages, only a political one — which necessitates ceasefire.
Some Americans critique the state of Israel through a post-colonial lens. Others believe protecting Israel as a religious state is an existential necessity. How do you understand these two perspectives? Both views are consequences of the contradiction that characterizes the status of Israel from its establishment in 1948 — even earlier if we think of the Zionist ideology. Why? Because there cannot be a state that is both Jewish and democratic. That is a contradiction in terms. These two cannot be reconciled.
Neither of the views you outlined are totally correct. The state of Israel has never had a distinction between religion and politics or religion and the state — not only in terms of religious political parties but also in the so-called Basic Laws [Israel has no Constitution]. For example, you cannot get married in Israel except in a religious form. My wife and I didn’t want to get married religiously, so we had to go abroad to marry. And, until recently, it was impossible to have a secular funeral. There’s no separation between religion and nationality.
We cannot ignore that Israel was established as a colonial endeavor. Zionism is a colonialist ideology and movement. This is a fact — even if it makes some people feel uncomfortable. However, I can say that the state of Israel itself is not currently a colonial project. But it’s totally different when we speak of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967. The occupation is colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. And we can say that the state of Israel was established at the expense of the Palestinian people, much like the U.S. was established on a terrible crime against Indigenous people and the crime of those brought from Africa as slaves. That doesn’t undermine the right of the United States now to exist as a sovereign state. It has the right to exist despite the crimes. And those crimes require justice to pay the price for those crimes. It is the same with Israel — also established on a terrible crime against the Palestinian people. But Israel as a sovereign state has the right to exist, provided it is without the occupation. If Israel is to be a real democracy, then it must, in the most minimal sense, be egalitarian. It cannot cling to one or another form of supremacy. That’s our current struggle against the occupation and for equality and justice within the state of Israel.
Americans are divided on how to support Israelis and Palestinians while condemning the Occupation, Hamas’ actions, and the war in Gaza. As a member of the Knesset, I wouldn’t want to intervene in the domestic issues of the U.S. The only thing I must say, morally speaking, is that Mr. Biden brought this upon himself. We must distinguish between the government of Israel and Israelis. The government of Israel — I want to be very clear and blunt — is now a full-fledged fascist and racist government. That doesn’t mean that all Israelis are. Absolutely not. The ongoing arming of Israel is harming Israel. That’s a moral and a political mistake by Mr. Biden. If he wants to support the Israeli society, then he must stand firm against this government that puts all of us at risk. Send us means of peace, not of war.
What was your experience of the Trump administration’s policies toward Israel? I could more or less rationally analyze and predict how the Biden administration would behave. I could not do that vis-à-vis the Trump [administration] because it was unpredictable. You could never know how [Mr. Trump] was going to act. Again, I’m not saying how Americans should vote. That’s not my business.
What is motivating Mr. Netanyahu to continue to wage war at all costs? It seems Mr. Netanyahu doesn’t care for anything but his own well-being and his own good. He doesn’t care about the lives of the Palestinians. He doesn’t care either for the lives and well-being of the Israelis. It was clear for everyone in the days after the Hamas attack that the only way to get the hostages was to make a deal quickly. That meant “all for all.” Release Palestinian prisoners — and don’t begin a war. And we know what happened. I’m terrified, really terrified to think about the fate of the Israeli hostages. And I put the blame on Netanyahu and his government. They are ready to sacrifice thousands of Palestinians, the Israeli hostages, and Israeli soldiers. But Netanyahu and the government thugs around him don’t care about the lives of anyone. For them, the blood of human beings is the fuel for birthing the messianic age. The only thing that drives Netanyahu is to stay in power and out of prison. He’s been charged with very severe criminal charges, so he knows that if he’s not prime minister, then he’ll finish in prison.
When the U.S. ships arms to support the government of Israel, it strengthens the most fanatic at the expense of Israeli society. If Mr. Biden wants to assist the Israeli society and the Palestinians as well, then he must stop this crazy government. Because either the two peoples perish together, or we flourish together. It’s not one or another; it’s both or neither. Ending the war is also in the interest of the United States as well. If the war doesn’t end promptly, the whole region is going to erupt. That will require a very high price from Americans — not only in money, but also in blood. Right now, we have an opportunity [to stop the war] where both justice and self-interest meet.
This is why we established the Peace Partnership in Israel. It now includes 44 civil society organizations, political parties, and social movements that are against the war and the occupation and are for peace. We need international support. We’ve held three successful demonstrations, even though there’s political persecution against anyone who raises an opposition voice in Israel right now. The police are still violent toward demonstrators — even toward families of the hostages. But there are hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens against the war who are calling for peace.
Editor’s note: For an extended version of this interview, see “An Israeli Lawmaker Tells U.S.: ‘Send Us Means of Peace, Not of War’” published on sojo.net on May 14, 2024.
Rose Marie Berger, a Catholic peace activist and poet, is senior editor of Sojourners magazine. She is author ofBending the Arch: Poems.
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