Sa’ar says politicians should not determine composition of Oct. 7 inquiry panel

During today’s cabinet meeting, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar voiced concerns regarding plans to set up an inquiry into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, saying that the government has yet to define the scope or mandate of the probe and stressing that the political echelon should not select the panel that will investigate it, his office says.

Earlier today, Hebrew media reports indicated that the government has decided to establish a commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the October 7 onslaught, though it will not be a state commission of inquiry and its mandate will be determined by cabinet ministers.

“We need to decide whether the investigation will focus only on October 7 and what led to it, or on the entire two years of the war and how it has been conducted,” Sa’ar says in comments from the meeting released by his office. “This will certainly be a commission that works for a very long time. I propose that we begin by defining its mandate.”

“The second question is: Who appoints it?” he continues, adding that “it is important to preserve the principle that the political echelon does not determine the composition” of the investigators.

“On this matter, there is no real difference between the composition being decided by the government alone or by the government together with the opposition, since the opposition leaders have previously served as prime ministers, defense ministers and IDF chiefs of staff. They, too, are not neutral parties,” he adds.

The government has long resisted creating a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 disaster, first arguing that such a probe could not operate during wartime, and later due to accusations by several cabinet ministers that Supreme Court President Isaac Amit could not be trusted to appoint a fair-minded judge or retired judge to head the panel.

Sa’ar reiterates his suggestion to reach a compromise through an amendment to the Commissions of Inquiry Law that would allow a former Supreme Court president or deputy president, not only Amit, to appoint the commission, saying this would keep the process independent while giving the government additional options.