‘Gaza has won, and Gaza will win’: Arab MK’s speech at anti-war rally draws outrage

Ayman Odeh, the leader of the predominantly Arab Hadash-Ta’al Knesset party, said at an anti-war rally in Haifa on Saturday that “Gaza has won, and Gaza will win,” drawing condemnation from the right wing.

“Israel has become a pariah state across the world, among all nations and in the West. After more than 600 days [of war], a majority among both peoples says: ‘If only those days had never happened,’” Odeh told the crowd. “It’s a historic loss to the right-wing ideology that was crushed in Gaza. Gaza won, and Gaza will win.”

According to Haaretz, about 2,000 people attended the left-wing rally, including representatives from 20 peace organizations.

“The [Benjamin] Netanyahu government has normalized the war, and we will normalize the opposition to it,” he continued. “This demonstration marks a turning point in the struggle to end the war, both in the number of participants and in the sharpened political messages.”

Odeh also addressed the weekly anti-government protesters calling for a hostage-ceasefire deal.

“Kudos to the demonstrators on Kaplan Street (where weekly rallies are typically held in Tel Aviv),” he said. “But you must recognize the core issue. The [judicial overhaul] stems from the occupation. There is no democracy with occupation.”

תומך הטרור אימן עודה, ח״כ בישראל, המקבל משכורת על חשבון משלם המיסים, נאם היום בחיפה וסייע לאוייב העזתי בעת מלחמה ואמר: ״עזה ניצחה ועזה תנצח״. אוי לחרפת כולנו.
איתו ישב יאיר גולן במזנון הכנסת, ואיתו ועם מפלגתו מדמיינים בנט ליברמן ואייזנקוט להקים ממשלה.
מזל שרוב העם חכם ואחראי.… pic.twitter.com/93l0kiWLYM

— טלי גוטליב (@TallyGotliv) May 31, 2025

Turning back to the crowd, Odeh said: “You are the overwhelming majority in the world, you are on the right side of history and the future. The Israeli government is calling for genocide, and when we say these are crimes against humanity, it gets outraged. We will say it to their face: this is genocide, this is ethnic cleansing.”

MK Ahmad Tibi, who leads the Ta’al party, which is part of a joint slate with Hadash, also gave a speech at the same rally in which he read aloud the names of the nine children of the al-Najjar family who Gazan authorities said were killed in an Israeli airstrike last week.

“Every hour, a child is killed in Gaza,” he said. “We’re here to say: stop bombing children, stop the war crimes.

“This Knesset is a Kahanist Knesset,” Tibi said, referring to disciples of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane. “[Itamar Ben Gvir’s] Otzma Yehudit [party] has five or six Kahanists, but the Likud has more Kahanists.” He also likened the rhetoric of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, about the need to conquer Gaza and expel its residents, to Nazi Germany.

Responding to Odeh’s speech, Likud MK Tally Gotliv called him on X a “terror supporter” whose speech “assisted the Gazan enemy.” She argued that Odeh is seen as a potential future coalition partner by The Democrats party leader Yair Golan, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman and National Union MK Gadi Eisenkot.

However, Odeh declared in 2023 that he would leave politics before the next Knesset election. His Hadash party has never been part of a Knesset coalition.

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer condemned Odeh, writing on X: “It isn’t being left-wing or right-wing — it’s being pro-Israel or pro-Hamas. Whoever sides with the enemy cannot serve in the Knesset.”

Energy Minister Eli Cohen wrote on X that Odeh is “a fifth column” and that his “[parliamentary] immunity must be revoked and [he should] be sent to jail or to Gaza.”

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav condemned the speeches of Odeh and Tibi, saying: “Whoever yells in a protest in Haifa that Gaza won and will win or talks about the State of Israel and the IDF in terms of war crimes and genocide, isn’t wanted in our city. It would be better if he went to protest elsewhere and asked himself why the terror group Hamas prevents Gaza residents [from receiving] aid.

“These protesters seek neither peace nor reconciliation,” Yahav continued, “but [they do seek] incitement and the fueling of tensions, but that won’t help them. Even an extremist and nationalist minority like this won’t break the coexistence in Haifa.”

Odeh doubled down and hit back at his critics, writing on X: “There is, and cannot be, victory over corpses of thousands of dead children, crushed families, starving civilians and total devastation. The right conducted this war out of blind vengeance, and was defeated. It’s a defeat for Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, and anyone who thought an entire people could be defeated through starvation, bombardment and siege.

“Because annihilation is not victory. Life is victory. Only those who see Gazans as ‘terrorists from birth,’ like the government de facto does, can twist my words in this way. Yes, Gaza will win. Life will win.”

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when terrorists invaded Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 251.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

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