Court doesn’t order state inquiry into Oct. 7, gives government 2 months to decide on probe |
The High Court of Justice on Monday gave the government until July 1 to come up with a “suitable framework” to investigate the debacle surrounding the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, stopping short of ordering a state commission of inquiry into the onslaught.
The decision, which followed a tense hearing on Thursday, enraged petitioners who had demanded that the Court force the government to form a statutory state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority.
The October Council, which is composed of families who lost loved ones in the Hamas onslaught and have long demanded a state commission, called the High Court decision a “slap in the face of bereaved families and of all the casualties of the October 7 massacre.”
“The High Court has given in to the government’s pressure… to postpone finding the truth,” the Council said, adding that there was no “suitable framework” other than a state commission of inquiry.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected such a committee because its members are selected by the judiciary, which he claims is biased against him. Netanyahu’s government has engaged in a years-long effort to weaken the court system.
Instead, Netanyahu has proposed a politically appointed inquiry into the massacre, which his opponents have vowed to boycott. Polls regularly show that most Israelis support a state commission of inquiry.
The seven-justice panel that heard the petitions said in its decision Monday that “the time has long since come to begin investigating the events of October 7,” but that the government........