In a 59-0 vote on Monday, the Knesset decided to pass legislation creating a politically appointed probe tasked with examining the failures that led to the October 7 attacks.
The legislation would allow the government to appoint the members of the committee that would investigate its own potential failings.
The vote was boycotted by opposition lawmakers in protest at what they argue is the governing coalition’s attempts to evade responsibility for the attacks.
Two Likud MKs, Dan Illouz and Yuli Edelstein, also abstained from the vote, both of whom have previously defied the coalition led by their own party on the controversial legislation.
The bill, which will now be returned to the Knesset Constitution Committee where it will prepare for its final two votes, is expected to be pushed through next week before the Knesset’s pre-election dissolution on July 17th, though it will need to gain two votes to achieve a majority.
The proposal, sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, provides for a Knesset supermajority formed from 80 out of 120 MKs to appoint a six-member investigative committee and its chairman.
If, after two weeks, there is no agreement, the coalition and opposition would be permitted to select three committee members each, who would be buttressed by four supervisory members representing bereaved families.
However, the clause that the committee may start operation even if just three members have been appointed has attracted controversy, as it means that it is plausible that a commission could be composed solely of coalition-appointed members and still carry out the inquiry.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has continuously refused the Opposition’s calls for an independent state commission inquiry to be formed, arguing that its members would be selected by the President of the Supreme Court, whom he claims is biased against him.
The bill’s provision that the scope of the politically appointed investigation would be decided by the coalition-appointed commission has also attracted significant criticism. Netanyahu has announced that the investigation’s parameters would include events from over three decades ago, including the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, and the 2023 protests against the government’s agenda of judicial overhaul, in what critics argue is an attempt to distract blame from his own government’s failure to protect Israel in the lead-up to October 7.
The October Council, a representative group for victims’ families, called the bill “disgraceful”, claiming it is “not intended to uncover the truth, but to bury it alongside our loved ones”.
Referring to the leaders of the Charedi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, the council’s statement, issued on Monday, added: “Moshe Gafni, Aryeh Deri and Yitzhak Goldknopf, we will pursue you day and night for trading the blood of our loved ones for money. This is not Judaism, and these are not its values.”
The vote was held just four days after Israel commemorated 1000 days since the October 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 and resulted in the abduction of 251 people into Gaza as hostages.
It also followed an agreement between Netanyahu and the Charedi parties, which put to an end their boycott of coalition legislation last month.
The coalition’s agreement to advance key Charedi policies, including a bill to include Torah study as Basic Law and the freezing of arrests and legal sanctions against draft evaders, came in exchange for the Charedim’s support of the coalition’s legislative agenda.
This principally includes their October 7 investigative policies and a pair of bills to lessen the power of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who has described such legislation as “tailor-made” for the “personal needs” of Netanyahu’s administration.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declared: “The opposition will not be part of a fake show whose sole purpose is to whitewash and prevent the investigation of the largest disaster that has befallen the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
"In the first month of the next government, we will establish a state commission of inquiry to investigate the October 7 massacre.”
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