Israeli opposition leaders and families of victims on Tuesday lambasted a bill advanced by parliament proposing a commission of inquiry into the October 7 attacks whose members would be appointed by politicians.
The country's parliamentary opposition and much of the public have repeatedly called for an independent commission of inquiry, a mechanism Israel has traditionally used to investigate major national failures, such as the 1973 Arab-Israel war.
In such inquiries, it is the country's supreme court that appoints an independent panel free of political input.
Opinion polls suggest a majority of Israelis across the political spectrum support an independent commission to investigate the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel by Palestinian group Hamas that triggered the Gaza war.
But a bill that passed its first reading on Monday night would instead set up a commission whose members would be chosen by politicians.
Critics say this would let the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu influence who investigates as well as the scope of their mandate.
The bill cleared its first reading in the Knesset -- Israel's 120-seat parliament -- by 59 votes to zero, with opposition lawmakers boycotting the vote.
Under the proposed law, the commission's six members would be appointed by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers.
In the absence of an agreement among them, three members would be chosen by Israel's ruling coalition and three by opposition MPs.
The October Council, a group founded by the families of victims and hostages taken by Palestinian militants on October 7, said the vote to advance the bill was "another blow" to bereaved families.
In a statement, it vowed to fight "until a state commission of inquiry is established -- independent and impartial -- that will investigate the disaster, assign responsibility, and ensure that such a failure never happens again".
Gadi Eisenkot of the centre-right Yashar party, a former Israeli military chief and rising rival to Netanyahu ahead of upcoming elections, also criticised the bill.
"Only someone who knows the truth and fears it establishes a politically appointed commission of inquiry, to whitewash the facts and rewrite the narrative," he wrote on X.
"Netanyahu, you are afraid, and rightly so -- publish the protocols and reveal the truth to the public."
Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister and another leading contender in the election, echoed that criticism.
"A government that flees from investigation dooms Israel to disaster after disaster," he wrote on X.
Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid added: "The opposition will not be part of a sham whose sole purpose is to whitewash and prevent the investigation of the greatest disaster to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust."
On Thursday, thousands of people took to the streets in Tel Aviv and elsewhere across Israel to mark 1,000 days since the October 7 attack and to call for a state commission of inquiry.
