This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Israel, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Israel on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IsraelWikipedia:WikiProject IsraelTemplate:WikiProject IsraelIsrael-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Socialism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of socialism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SocialismWikipedia:WikiProject SocialismTemplate:WikiProject Socialismsocialism articles
Calling him far-left, especially by sources critical of him, can't be put in Wikipedias voice in the lead. Please mind NPOV on this BLP article. It should be attributed and in context. So something like "After Cassifs criticism of Israel, many commentators have considered his positions to be 'far-left'".VRtalk 14:18, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Not really seeing the issue here. Bezalel Smotrich is rightly referred to as far-right in his bio, so not sure why the equivalent wouldn't be done here. Cassif is a representative of the Communist Party, so this isn't really a disputed label. Cheers, Number57 14:39, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes it is. Other sources describe him as merely "left-wing"[1][2] or "leftist"[3][4]. VRtalk 14:53, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I can see, only the MSNBC actually labels Cassif himself; the others refer to Hadash. And similarly, one can also find sources describing Smotrich as only "right-wing"[5][6][7]
I appreciate far-left is often used as an insult (there were many attempts to label Meretz as far-left on here), but it really shouldn't be an issue to label a Communist politician as such, and there is a false equivalence in labelling Smotrich but not Cassif. Number57 15:10, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Admittedly, there are far more sources on Cassif's party, the Hadash, than there are on Cassif himself. Here are some more sources that directly call Cassif a "leftist"[8][9][10][11][12].
I'm not going to start a discussion there, as I feel Smotrich is correctly labelled. I am concerned about the poor rationale for removing what should be an uncontroversial label here. Number57 15:56, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Also if Cassif is a communist, first that should be added to the article, and second a communist label is more specific than far-left. But is he a communist? VRtalk 16:05, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, he is a member of Maki. It mentions in the Al Jazeera source you cite above that he is a "proud communist". Number57 16:10, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In that communist would be much more specific. Far-left, per our own wiki page, is ambiguous. VRtalk 16:54, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
There's no issue here. Far-left is not an insult or the opinion of opposing commentators, which would be WP:UNDUE. It's a phrase that multiple RS -- from across the political spectrum -- use to precisely describe his political positions. Compared to center-left parties like Yesh Atid and Labor, Cassif is much further to the left.
Besides, it's completely uncontroversial to label the communist party a "far left" party in any country. This is the same at Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir (for which we use even fewer RS to make the case). If one is to make the case for more big-tent terms such as "left-wing" here, then I would expect them to also make the case on other pages where "far-right" or "far-left" is used; otherwise, we're treading into WP:NPOV territory.
Here's Haaretz -- a left-wing, progressive paper of record -- also using "far-left": [13]. Here's Dawn News, a Pakistani paper that is not the most Zionist, also using "far-left": [14]. Here's The Messenger, a centrist, non-Israeli website,also using "far-left": [15]Longhornsg (talk) 19:43, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And no, he did not "become far-left" by being 1 of 120 Knesset members to support South Africa's ICJ case. There's plenty of souring, including from Haaretz, using that term for many years. Longhornsg (talk) 19:47, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
