Father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin backs Oct. 7 state inquiry even though it will ‘not bring back my only son’

Jon Polin, the father of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, says he wants a state commission of inquiry, the highest investigative probe possible in Israel, into the failures surrounding the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and slams the government’s contentious planned commission of inquiry, which many bereaved families have rejected as politically motivated and unable to truly assign responsibility.

“I support establishing a state commission of inquiry not to punish anyone, and not because it will bring back my only son,” Polin says at a press conference organized by the October Council, a group of bereaved families. “I support a state commission of inquiry so that nothing that happened to my son can ever happen to anyone else’s son.”

Polin, whose son Hersh was kidnapped by Gazan terrorists from the Nova music festival and then murdered in captivity in August 2024, says that “in a democracy, the political and diplomatic echelon cannot investigate themselves — that only happens in places where leaders are afraid of something.”

Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son, Staff Sgt. Alroy Ben Shitrit, was killed at the Nahal Oz IDF base on October 7, calls the planned government commission “a smokescreen and the direct continuation of the campaign of trolling, trickery and confusion.”

“The purpose of the [government’s October 7 probe] is to silence criticism, hide evidence, contaminate the investigation, evade responsibility, manipulate public opinion and obscure the significant role of the government that was in charge on the day of the massacre,” he adds. “The government of chaos and destruction is rolling from failure to failure, trying to hide behind a fake committee.”

Tomorrow, ministers are slated to meet to decide the scope of the government-approved inquiry.