Prime Minister Netanyahu has given the first indication of which topics the upcoming government inquiry into October 7 may touch on.
The probe has been the subject of controversy after the government denied calls from many hostage families for a state commission of inquiry - whose members would be appointed by the Supreme Court - in favour of one appointed and directed by the Knesset, in which it has a slim majority.
Claims of a "whitewash" intensified after it was confirmed that Netanyahu would chair the panel to set the parameters for an inquiry that could look into the alleged failings of his own government.
But, following the first meeting of that panel yesterday, Netanyahu suggested that the investigation could cover many decades of developments leading up to the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The prime minister stated that the inquiry should examine the impact of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2005 disengagement from Gaza and the anti-judicial reform protest movement in 2023.
All of those have been the subject of heavy criticism from the coalition and Netanyahu's Likud party.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv - recently promoted by the party to the Knesset Defence Committee - even claimed without evidence in 2024 that leaders in the protest movement had contacted Hamas prior to the attack, earning a public rebuke from Netanyahu himself.
Ministers voted yesterday to advance the legislation forming the basis of the committee, with a Knesset plenum vote scheduled for Wednesday.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid condemned the bill, saying: "Those directly responsible for the disaster will appoint a cover-up commission whose sole purpose is to clear them of guilt. It will not help them. They are guilty.
"This committee is not meant to investigate the truth; it is meant to bury the truth. Politicians will control it, and its goal is to pollute the testimonies, destroy evidence, mislead and confuse the public."
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