Hadash head MK Ayman Odeh responded Tuesday to a firestorm started by his Sunday X/Twitter statement that he was “happy about the release of the hostages and prisoners” in the ongoing hostage deal.
Many were outraged by the comment, which they called a comparison between Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and terrorists, and members of the coalition began collecting signatures to initiate a parliamentary process to impeach Odeh.
Odeh said he understood that many were hurt by his tweet, and was especially sad to see that he hurt the feelings of families of hostages.
“My perspective as a Palestinian citizen of Israel is apparently different from the perspective of many Jewish citizens of Israel,” he said on X. “While it’s evident that many of you tend to focus primarily on Jewish suffering, I see and grieve the suffering of both peoples. This is simply the reality – not just mine, but that of all Arabs living in this country.”
Excited to see the release
Odeh went on to say that while Israelis excitedly watched the return of the hostages, he also watched and was excited.
“But I also watched the release of 90 prisoners – or, more precisely, women and minors, boys and girls,” he said
“These are the prisoners who were freed – the simple truth is that not a single person accused of murder was released. Most of the Palestinians released that day were not even charged with anything!”
He also said most of the Palestinian prisoners released “were young men and women held under administrative detention without even being told what they were accused of.”
While none of those released on Sunday committed murder, a few attempted murder, according to Ynet, which said that among those released was a 17-year-old who carried out a shooting attack in 2023 and a 23-year-old woman who carried out a stabbing attack in 2020.
“So, yes, although my words may be difficult for you to hear, I am a citizen of Israel who also sees and mourns Palestinian suffering – the suffering of my people living under occupation... At the same time, I also grieve for the pain of the other people, even if under the current circumstances, the occupation is carried out in their name,” he said.
Odeh called on people not to “give in to the wave of incitement and distortions,” saying that he is “a person who feels your pain, but I also live and feel the pain of my people.”
The full text of Odeh’s Sunday post read: “Happy about the release of the hostages and prisoners. From here, both nations must be freed from the burden of occupation. We were all born free.”
As part of a previous agreement in the opposition, Odeh was scheduled to take over as chairman of the Knesset Special Committee on Young Israelis from Democrats MK Naama Lazimi. However, Knesset House Committee MK Ofir Katz (Likud) said on Monday he would not approve the move in light of the accusations against Odeh.
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.