During US President Donald Trump’s address to the Knesset on Monday, Israeli lawmakers Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif were escorted out after holding up posters that read “Recognize Palestine.”
The protest occurred amid heightened regional tensions, following a ceasefire and the release of Israeli captives by Hamas, temporarily halting the Gaza conflict.
Trump, briefly interrupted, reacted by saying, “That was efficient.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier praised Trump as Israel’s “greatest friend” in the White House.
Later, Odeh posted on X that he was removed for expressing a widely supported call: recognition of a Palestinian state. “There are two people here, and neither is going anywhere,” he wrote.
Cassif echoed the sentiment, stating their action wasn’t to disrupt but to demand justice.
“True peace requires ending the occupation and apartheid, and establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” he said, urging resistance to what he called a “government of bloodshed.”
Earlier, Hamas freed all 20 captives as per the ceasefire agreement deal. However, Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are awaiting the release of nearly 2,000 prisoners from Israeli jails as part of the same deal.
