‘Smokescreen’: Bereaved families attack government-sponsored October 7 probe |
The October Council, made up of families who lost loved ones in Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, on Sunday assailed as a “smokescreen” the government’s plan to establish its own commission of inquiry into the attack, a day ahead of a ministerial meeting set to decide the scope of the panel.
According to reports in Hebrew media last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head the ministerial team, giving him wide influence over the direction of the investigative panel proposed by his government, instead of the independent state inquiry demanded by most of the public.
A government-backed bill to establish the new type of commission of inquiry was set to be brought to a vote in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, to formally grant coalition support for the measure. Under the terms of that bill, the ministerial committee reportedly set to be headed by Netanyahu would set the mandate and parameters for the commission of inquiry.
Netanyahu proposed the government commission several months ago, after long rejecting a state commission of inquiry, the country’s highest investigative authority, because its make-up would be determined by the judiciary, which his government claims it does not trust and has sought to weaken through a series of controversial laws. However, as recently as 2022, Netanyahu backed a state commission of inquiry into the conduct of the previous government.
Despite it being touted as “independent,” the government commission’s mandate will be determined by cabinet ministers and Netanyahu himself, who has refused to accept responsibility for the failures that allowed the October 7 attack to take place. While government members have largely avoided accepting responsibility since the attack, almost all of the country’s military and security chiefs have