Knesset member Ayman Odeh is removed from the hall after raising a sign while U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on October 13, 2025 in Jerusalem.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump’s address to the Israeli Parliament was briefly interrupted on Monday (October 13, 2025) as two left-wing lawmakers were expelled.
“That was very efficient,” Mr. Trump quipped as the MPs were swiftly removed.
The U.S. President had paused as a Knesset staff member audibly ordered the expulsion of lawmaker Ofer Cassif following an apparent protest.
Protest demanding Palestine’s statehood
During the session, in which Mr. Trump was otherwise warmly received and given multiple standing ovations, Mr. Cassif had brandished a sign.
A photo in his post showed a piece of paper emblazoned: “Recognise Palestine!”
“This is the banner I waved in front of Trump at the Knesset and was subsequently removed from the plenum,” Mr. Cassif posted.
“We didn’t come to disturb, but to demand justice. True peace that will save both peoples of this land from destruction will only come with the end of the occupation and apartheid and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel”, he wrote.
Another leftist, Ayman Odeh, leader of Cassif’s Hadash alliance, was also seen brandishing a page of paper and being removed.
“They kicked me out of the Knesset just for raising the simplest demand, one that the whole international community agrees on: Recognize the State of Palestine! Recognize the simple truth”, Ayman Odeh wrote on X.
He also added, “The amount of hypocrisy in the plenum is unbearable. To crown Netanyahu through flattery the likes of which has never been seen, through an orchestrated group, does not absolve him and his government of the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, nor of the responsibility for the blood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian victims and thousands of Israeli victims.”
Published – October 13, 2025 06:50 pm IST
