Tel Aviv anti-government protesters rail against PM’s ‘fascist’ Oct. 7 probe

Speakers at the 500-strong anti-government protest on Tel Aviv’s Habima Square rail against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to call for a statutory state commission of inquiry for failures surrounding the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.

“As time passes the questions just pile up,” says Ayala Metzger, whose 80-year-old father-in-law Yoram was snatched to Gaza in the attack and killed in Hamas captivity.

A statutory committee, Israel’s highest investigative authority, comprises independent experts appointed by the chief justice, she notes.

Netanyahu’s proposed committee of inquiry, by contrast, would be selected by politicians.

“The political, populist, fascist committee of inquiry… would comprise three coalition representatives and three opposition representatives,” she says. “If the opposition members happen to refuse to take part in this perverse conduct, the three coalition members will act as the committee and probe the crimes they themselves are responsible for.”

Eran Littman, whose daughter Oriya was killed in the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival, says the 26-year-old was “murdered because of a war of religion.”

“Hamas’s Muslim fanatics murdered her,” while letters left behind from slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar show “the damage that Jewish fanatics did to Muslim holy places triggered the unending war,” Littman claims.

He expresses derision toward the Haredi effort to pass a quasi-constitutional Basic Law equating the privileges of draft-evading yeshiva students to those of Israelis who perform mandatory military service.

“Don’t you dare tell me learning Torah protects us,” he says. “Anyone who dares say that next to me, I’ll take them six feet under so they can say that to my Oriya.”

“The fire in me burns hotter than the flames of hell,” he adds.

He notes ahead of these comments that his daughter’s body was retrieved by four Haredi volunteers with the ZAKA service who are “no less heroic than any commando.” Littman’s tirade is aimed at the government, not the volunteers, whom he has since befriended, he says.

As he speaks, police enter the crowd to break up a shouting match between pro-government provocateur Hadar Muchtar, who is trying to get footage from the protest, and a would-be anti-government influencer who tries to shout her down.

Both are escorted aside, and police take their respective versions before letting them go.