From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 10, 2025
Lapid launches petition campaign aimed at pressuring government to establish Oct. 7 state inquiry
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"
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid announces that he is launching a petition campaign aimed at pressuring the government to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, attacks, and accuses the Netanyahu government of seeking to hide its responsibility for the disaster.
“The Israeli government did everything yesterday to bury the state commission of inquiry. They postponed it for another three months. From their perspective, no one at the political level is guilty or responsible for what happened on October 7,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
“They don’t want us to know. They don’t want us to know that the prime minister saw the intelligence and ignored it. They don’t want us to remember that their policy was to strengthen Hamas. They don’t want us to know that they could have prevented the October 7 assault and didn’t. They don’t want us to know how decisions have been made since October 7 and why the hostages are not home yet.”
“If they think they are not guilty, what are they afraid of?” Lapid asks. “Why are they preventing the investigation? We deserve answers.”
Lapid says that his party is now launching a “nationwide campaign” to collect citizens’ signatures on a petition calling for an official state probe and that he will “work together with civil society organizations” to advance the issue.
“I call on the citizens of Israel to sign the petition, either on the street, physically, or digitally, via the internet,” Lapid urges.
