It’s doubtful whether the policeman who beat up lawmaker Ofer Cassif knew who he was hitting. Maybe he knew he was striking a Knesset member, maybe he didn’t – that wasn’t the point. It was enough that he was beating up a leftist demonstrator who deserved it. But what the policeman didn’t know was that he was beating a Knesset leftist of a new stripe, one who doesn’t mince words or apologize, one who doesn’t evade the truth or cover it up. He isn’t just a non-Zionist, he’s patently anti-Zionist, without any attempt at concealing this. In reply to an incidental question posed by Haaretz journalist Nir Guntaz, appearing in the paper’s weekend Hebrew edition, Cassif said so explicitly: “I object to the ideology and practice of Zionism…it’s a racist ideology and practice which espouses Jewish supremacy.”
It’s doubtful that such words have ever been uttered in Israel’s legislature, certainly not by a Jewish lawmaker. Seventy three years of statehood have not given rise to a significant Jewish movement (aside from Matzpen in the 1960s and 70s) rebelling against Zionism or at least casting doubt on the justness of its cause. Several important Jewish figures were anti-Zionist, but not in our parts. That is forbidden here. Cassif made a small crack in this consensus, but his fate is sealed. He’ll become an esoteric item, an oddity, a clown – the fate of any opponent when the regime, aided by the media, is done with him. If he’s lucky, he’ll become an enemy, a loathed traitor. His predecessors, such as Prof. Israel Shahak or attorney Felicia Langer, met a similar fate.
I still remember how the Israeli media treated Shahak as an eccentric. He was renowned around the world, but here his mental stability was questioned. Israel is unwilling to
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Gideon Levy | 18 Apr 2021