Knesset Speaker Ohana apologizes to bereaved families for Knesset guards’ use of force against them

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana issues an apology to bereaved families and the relatives of hostages after they were violently prevented from entering the Knesset plenum’s visitors’ gallery earlier this week.

The incident in question took place on Monday evening when guards used force to prevent the families from entering to watch a debate on probing the October 7 catastrophe, including a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When 40 members of the October Council — which represents some 1,500 October 7 survivors, former hostages and victims’ families — tried to ascend a stairwell leading to the gallery, they were pushed, hit and grabbed in what quickly devolved into a chaotic scrum. Three people were said to have required medical treatment as a result of the incident.

The visitors’ gallery, which holds some 200 people, was empty at the time. The families had informed the Knesset the day before that they wished to attend the debate, and had registered to do so.

“To the bereaved families who were harmed this week in the Knesset — I apologize from the bottom of my heart,” Ohana writes in a statement posted on X. “This is an event that should not have happened, and we will be able to prevent its recurrence with goodwill on both sides.”

He explains that entry into the Knesset plenum is sometimes limited during sensitive debates for safety reasons, and recalls an incident several months prior when anti-government protests banged on the glass of the viewing box to disrupt the legislative session.

He says that the way they had been knocking on the glass “caused the Knesset sergeant-at-arms to fear that it would break and fall (from a great height) into the plenum, which could cause a mass disaster.”

As a result, he says, the decision was made to limit attendance during specific debates, including during Monday’s discussion on an October 7 probe.

“This created a situation in which the Knesset Guard members were forced to face the wrath of the families who asked to enter the gallery in their dozens and did not allow them to,” Ohana says.

While Ohana says that “at least one” member of the Knesset Guard suffered “a concussion and an injury to his eye” in the incident, he does not comment on the injuries sustained by several bereaved family members.

Ohana says that after he instructed Sergeant-At-Arms Yuval Chen to defuse the situation, the bereaved families were permitted to enter the viewing gallery.

“The bottom line is that all the families who wished to do so were present in the gallery before the two key figures, the prime minister and opposition leader, delivered their speeches,” he says.

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart to the families who were affected, and invite them to continue coming to the Knesset,” he adds.