Netanyahu: Politically appointed Oct 7 inquiry must probe Oslo deal, Gaza disengagement

Ministers lend government backing to a commission of inquiry whose members could be chosen by the coalition, not the Supreme Court president, as under existing law

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a politically appointed commission of inquiry into the failings surrounding the October 7, 2023, invasion must include an examination of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, and the 2023 protest movement against the current government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

Netanyahu made his comments after a key ministerial committee gave coalition backing to a contentious bill that would create a new type of commission of inquiry, whose members would be picked by the Knesset, instead of the Supreme Court president, as mandated under the current law for state commissions of inquiry.

The legislation, a private members bill introduced by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, will now come to the Knesset plenum for a preliminary reading this Wednesday.

According to a government source, Netanyahu told the committee in its first meeting on Monday afternoon that the investigation into the events of October 7 must reach back decades, “from Oslo, through to the [Gaza] Disengagement, and up to [reserve duty] refusal.”

He was referring in the latter part of his comments to the declaration of some opponents of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda in 2023 that they were discontinuing their service in the IDF reserves in protest.

Opposition leaders denounced the government’s efforts to create a new investigative mechanism instead of establishing a state commission of inquiry, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid saying it was designed to “bury the truth” and hoodwink the Israeli public.

Under the terms of Kallner’s bill, the members of the commission of inquiry would be appointed in a vote in the Knesset plenum of at least 80 MKs, meaning the proposed panel would need at least some opposition support to pass. If, as expected, the opposition refuses to support the proposed panel, the coalition and opposition will be able to appoint equal numbers of commission members. And if the opposition boycotts the process entirely, as it has vowed to do, the Knesset speaker — in this case Likud MK Amir Ohana — would ultimately choose all members of the commission.

In a later video message on Monday, Netanyahu argued that an event on the scale of October 7 necessitated a “special commission,” akin to the special commission appointed in the US after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“No one then complained about political bias, and I must say that its conclusions received broad legitimacy precisely for this reason. That is exactly what we are doing,” he said.

“The government could have established a governmental review committee, whose entire composition would be determined solely by the government,” Netanyahu maintained. “But I believed that such a committee would earn the trust of only part of the public.”

“Likewise, a commission of inquiry whose composition would be determined exclusively by Justice Yitzhak Amit, as proposed by the opposition, would gain the trust of only a small segment of the public that believes in it,” Netanyahu continued, avoiding referring to the Supreme Court president by his title.

“I say to the opposition: Go ahead — bring whatever experts you want, ask whatever questions you want, investigate whomever you want — including me,” continued the prime minister. “All issues will be examined, without exception. The political, the security, the intelligence, the legal — everything.”

Successive polls have found that most of the public favors a state commission of inquiry — either appointed exclusively by Amit, or jointly with his conservative deputy, Noam Sohlberg, both options that Netanyahu has ruled out.

Netanyahu, as finance minister in the Sharon government, voted several times in favor of key steps advancing the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza in 2004 and 2005, although he ultimately resigned in August 2005 in protest against the plan, just a week before its implementation.

Although Netanyahu opposed the Oslo Accords before they were signed, he never acted to reverse them after he took office as prime minister in 1996 and again in 2009, and signed and partially implemented additional components of the Oslo process, including the Hebron Protocol and the Wye River Memorandum.

During the meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which voted to back the bill to create the new commission of inquiry, Minister in the Finance Ministry Ze’ev Elkin was the only minister to oppose it. Elkin expressed concern over a clause in the bill that says the Knesset speaker will choose the members of the commission if the opposition boycotts the process, as it has vowed to do.

This would mean that the coalition would appoint all members of the commission of inquiry, which Elkin pointed out would be no different than establishing a government commission of inquiry, something already available under existing law.

The opposition was scathing in its criticism of the government’s proposed inquiry, accusing Netanyahu and his ministers of trying to absolve themselves of blame for the events of October 7.

“Those directly responsible for the disaster will appoint a cover-up commission whose sole purpose is to clear them of guilt. It will not help them. They are guilty,” Lapid declared.

“This committee is not meant to investigate the truth; it is meant to bury the truth. Politicians will control it, and its goal is to pollute the testimonies, destroy evidence, mislead and confuse the public,” he added, calling the commission “a death certificate for the truth.”

Similarly, Democrats chairman Yair Golan blasted the proposed commission of inquiry, declaring that this “pathetic attempt to engineer a political investigation is an admission of guilt.”