An Israeli parliamentary committee backed a motion on Tuesday to expel a leftwing lawmaker from the Knesset over his support for South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that accuses Israel of genocide in its onslaught in Gaza, Reuters reports.

A vote to impeach Ofer Cassif, from the communist Hadash party which sits in a joint list with the left-wing Arab Ta’al party, will now be held in a full sitting of the Knesset, where it will require 90 members of the 120-seat assembly to pass. A date for the vote has not been fixed.

In a fiery two-day sitting of the Knesset House committee on Wednesday, members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party traded insults with Cassif’s supporters, who condemned the motion as anti-democratic.

Contacted by Reuters, Cassif declined to be interviewed but a statement from his party chairman accused Netanyahu’s government of taking a step towards a “coup d’etat”.