Report: Netanyahu looking to ban formation of state committee of inquiry into Oct. 7

Draft legislation said to propose establishing political committee to probe Hamas atrocities, would outlaw any other body from investigating failures that led to devastating attack

Gazans celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the broken Israel-Gaza border fence, east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP/Yousef Masoud)
Gazans celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the broken Israel-Gaza border fence, east of Khan Younis, October 7, 2023. (AP/Yousef Masoud)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to promote legislation that will ban the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, Israeli television reported Wednesday.

According to Channel 13 news, the legislation will instead allow for the establishment of a political commission of inquiry, which would be chaired by one coalition lawmaker and one opposition lawmaker. Senior security officials would also serve on the panel, the report said.

A separate report by the Ynet news site said a draft proposal of the legislation explicitly calls for outlawing any other investigative body from probing the Hamas-led massacres.

Netanyahu repeatedly put off the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, which is the body that enjoys the broadest powers until Israeli law, to investigate the government’s failures that enabled the deadly Hamas attacks, claiming that all investigations must wait until the fighting in Gaza ends.

Earlier this month, however, the Israel Hayom daily reported that the premier was mulling the establishment of an alternate “special committee” to probe the failure to prevent thousands of Hamas-led Gazans from storming southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Netanyahu has not accepted personal responsibility for October 7, which top security officials and some government ministers have done.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the plenum of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on November 18, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Responding to the Channel 13 report on X, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid warned that a political commission of inquiry “cannot and will not happen.”

“We will only vote in favor of a state commission of inquiry,” he added.

MK Merav Ben Ari, of Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, similarly voiced opposition to the reported plan, and vowed that the opposition “will not cooperate” with Netanyahu’s attempt to “escape his responsibility for the October 7 massacres.”

“We will use every parliamentary right we have to torpedo the laws,” she promised.

The independent Civilian Commission of Inquiry investigating the government’s failures on October 7 also decried the proposed political committee, saying it was aimed at “thwarting a state commission of inquiry.”

“This is what spin at the public’s expense look like it,” the group said.

State commissions of inquiry, the inquiry body that enjoys the broadest powers under Israeli law, are typically headed by a retired Supreme Court Justice. Esther Hayut would be a potential choice for that role, given that she just recently finished her tenure as president of the top court. But Netanyahu is reportedly vehemently opposed to her appointment, given her outspoken criticism of his government’s effort to radically overhaul the judiciary last year.

Faced with mounting pressure, he has reportedly instead been looking for several months into Knesset legislation to establish an independent panel headed by a figure of his choosing.

Members of the independent Civilian Commission of Inquiry into the events of October 7 gather to announce the launch of their probe in Tel Aviv, July 18, 2024. (Civilian Commission of Inquiry)

Addressing the Knesset this summer, Netanyahu implied that he viewed a probe of October 7 as a bureaucratic nuisance, comparing current demands for such an investigation to bureaucratic inspections of the British military during the Napoleonic wars over 200 years ago.

Speaking after his recent ouster by Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant said that one of the reasons he was fired was his insistence on the need for a state commission of inquiry.

Getting at the truth and extracting military, political and security lessons from October 7 is the only way to prepare Israeli forces for future challenges, Gallant argued.

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