\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n In such inquiries, it is the country's supreme court that appoints an independent panel free of political input.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n But a bill that passed its first reading on Monday night would instead set up a commission whose members would be chosen by politicians.\n<\/p>\n
\n Critics say this would let the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu influence who investigates as well as the scope of their mandate.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n Under the proposed law, the commission's six members would be appointed by a two-thirds majority of lawmakers.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the absence of an agreement among them, three members would be chosen by Israel's ruling coalition and three by opposition MPs.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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\".\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"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.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Netanyahu, you are afraid, and rightly so -- publish the protocols and reveal the truth to the public.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister and another leading contender in the election, echoed that criticism.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"A government that flees from investigation dooms Israel to disaster after disaster,\" he wrote on X.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-161525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n