Contentious law for politically appointed Oct. 7 probe passes preliminary Knesset reading |
Lawmakers on Wednesday voted 53-48 in favor of a preliminary reading of a highly controversial bill to establish a politically appointed probe into the October 7, 2023, failures instead of a state commission of inquiry, drawing heated protests and condemnations from opposition lawmakers and bereaved families.
Likud MK Ariel Kallner’s bill, which received the backing of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Monday, will now be sent to the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for preparation for the next readings necessary for it to become law.
Several coalition members remained outside the chamber and did not vote, including Likud MK Yuli Edelstein and New Hope’s Zeev Elkin. The bill was supported by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and Degel Hatorah faction of UTJ, while members of Agudat Yisrael either remained away from the vote or, in one case, abstained.
Kallner’s plan, a prior version of which the lawmaker floated earlier this year, calls for a majority of 80 out of 120 MKs to appoint a six-member investigative committee and its chairman. If there is no agreement after two weeks, both the opposition and coalition would be allowed to select three committee members each, who would be joined by four supervisory members representing bereaved families.
The proposal states that if either the coalition or opposition does not cooperate in the process or cannot settle on a candidate, the Knesset speaker will choose instead — giving the coalition effective control, as opposition figures have pledged to boycott the commission.
Any two members of the committee would be empowered to summon any person or investigate any entity, and all discussions would be broadcast live.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara panned the legislation on Sunday, describing it as........