'We have buried enough -- you cannot bury the truth'

Protesters rally at ministers’ homes ahead of first vote on government’s Oct. 7 probe

One arrested outside Knesset speaker’s home, suspected of attacking police; father of soldier slain in massacre says government ‘spitting in the faces’ of those who lost loved ones

Small groups of activists calling for a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre protested on Wednesday morning outside the homes of a number of senior Likud officials ahead of a preliminary Knesset vote on the government’s proposal to establish a politically appointed investigation committee instead.

Protests were held outside the homes of Education Minister Yoav Kisch in Hod Hasharon, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana in Tel Aviv, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in Ness Ziona, Justice Minister Yariv Levin in Modiin, and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli in Kibbutz Hanaton.

Activists from the anti-government October Council group, among them relatives of those killed or taken hostage during the massacre, held signs with slogans such as “We have buried enough — you cannot bury the truth.”

One man was arrested outside Ohana’s home on suspicion of attacking a policeman and violating police instructions, according to a group that tracks arrests at anti-government protests.

“Where was the army? Where was the government? Two years and two months after the war began, I am crying out the cry of the people of Israel,” said Shimi Calderon, whose nephew Ofer Calderon was a Hamas hostage, at the protest outside Kisch’s home.

“Yoav, we know each other. We probably won’t meet here, but maybe we will meet today in the Knesset,” he said.

The demonstrations came after a parliamentary 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 by the Supreme Court president as mandated under the current law for state commissions of inquiry.

The legislation for the politically appointed probe is expected to come to the Knesset for a preliminary reading on Wednesday.

At a press conference at the Knesset ahead of the vote, bereaved father Rafi Ben Shitrit accused the coalition of “spitting in the faces” of those who lost loved ones.

Shitrit is the father of Staff Sgt. Shimon Alroy Ben Shitrit, who was killed battling terrorists on the Nahal Oz army base on October 7, 2023.

“The government is evading responsibility and doing all sorts of tricks and shenanigans. Likud MKs are going to support this delusional and disgusting proposal,” he said. “I call on every citizen with a sane conscience in the State of Israel not to cooperate with this committee.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the public would not trust a state commission because its members would be chosen by the judiciary, which he argues is adversarial to him and which his government has sought to weaken through a series of controversial laws. As recently as 2022, Netanyahu had backed a state commission of inquiry into the conduct of the previous government.

On Monday, Netanyahu, who has refused to acknowledge responsibility for the October 7 massacre, said the inquiry must include an examination of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, and the 2023 protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

Despite Netanyahu’s claims, opinion polls consistently show that a state commission of inquiry is backed by a majority of the public.

Under the terms of the bill, proposed by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, the members of the commission of inquiry would be appointed in a Knesset vote by a majority 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.

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 on Monday it was designed to “bury the truth” and hoodwink the Israeli public.