From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Coalition defeats bill seeking to form state inquiry into Oct. 7 failures
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Coalition lawmakers defeat a bill to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failure to prevent the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, with the Knesset voting 39-51 against the legislation sponsored by National Unity MK Orit Farkash Hacohen.
The bill would have allowed for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry without the need for a government decision in cases of “exceptional public importance.”
Representing the government’s position on the legislation, Justice Minister Yariv Levin says that he would not trust any commission whose members would be appointed by Supreme Court President Isaac Amit — whose recent appointment he long sought to prevent.
A state commission of inquiry holds unique powers to investigate a national disaster, including subpoena power, and is totally independent of the government after it is set up. Its members are chosen by the president of the Supreme Court.
Responding to the failure of her bill, MK Farkash Hacohen tweets that despite Levin’s call for “broad consensus” in the choice of the members of an investigative probe, the coalition sought no such consensus when it voted in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee in support of a bill “politicizing the judicial selection committee” this morning.
A previous bill by Farkash Hacohen calling for the establishment of a state probe was defeated 45-53 in the plenum in late January.
“Those who have nothing to hide should not be afraid of establishing a state commission of inquiry,” National Unity declares in a statement.
For his part, party chief Benny Gantz tells lawmakers that the decisions of policymakers in office in the years leading up to October 7, including his, must be probed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out any inquiry until after the war — and, over the weekend, swiftly rejected a compromise proposal made by President Isaac Herzog and Supreme Court President Amit which would see Amit consult with incoming Supreme Court deputy head Noam Sohlberg, a conservative, when appointing the members of a state commission, should the government agree to establish one.
Addressing the issue during a Knesset speech earlier this month, Netanyahu agreed that it was “crucial to investigate in depth the events of October 7 and what led up to it,” but that “this investigation needs to win the trust of the nation, or the overwhelming majority of the nation.”
Red-faced and shouting into the microphone, he called for an “objective, balanced, independent investigation… not a commission whose findings are predetermined.”
In February, Likud MK Ariel Kallner presented a proposal for an alternative investigatory body whose members would be appointed by the Knesset, in an effort to head off establishing a state commission of inquiry.
Netanyahu hasn’t publicly backed or proposed any mechanism for probing October 7.
