3 arrested in protest at PM’s office as backers of state Oct. 7 probe vow ‘week of rage’

Demonstrations to ramp up as ministerial committee advances government’s plan for politically appointed investigation of October 7 attack, rather than state commission of inquiry

Three people were detained on Monday after a small group of activists tried to block the entrance to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem while calling for the creation of a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The activists were the first of a series of groups that plan to protest government meetings and individual politicians this week in opposition to the government’s contentious plan to create a politically appointed committee to investigate the worst massacre in Israel’s history.

The protest plans were coalescing as the Ministerial Committee for Legislation advanced a bill submitted by Likud MK Ariel Kallner that would set up the government’s investigatory committee. Ministers are also meeting on Monday to determine the mandate of the government’s inquiry into the attack.

Under the law, a state commission of inquiry, headed by the judiciary, is the country’s highest investigatory body. Polls have shown that most Israelis want a state commission to investigate the October 7 attack. Critics have slammed the government’s plan to set up its own investigatory commission because the current coalition was in power when the attack occurred, meaning that the government would be creating an investigation to probe its own actions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is leading the group that will set the investigation’s guidelines, has claimed that the public would not trust a state commission because its members would be chosen by the judiciary, 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.

He and his allies argue that Kallner’s plan aims for consensus because it calls for appointees from the coalition and opposition. But the opposition has vowed to boycott the process, saying it will only support a state commission of inquiry, which is politically independent.

Against that backdrop, protesters are mobilizing this week to fight the government’s bill. The three activists who were detained while protesting at the Prime Minister’s Office wore masks with the faces of Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians, and carried a banner reading “self commission of inquiry,” over the word “state,” which was crossed out.

Those arrested included Michal Deutsch and Matanel Ciechanowski, two longtime prominent anti-government activists with the group Changing Direction. Video posted by the group shows its members being roughed up by police.

“We won’t let the government investigate itself!” the group posted on X above the footage. “Police violence won’t stop us from continuing this protest, which is the most justified there is!”

Calls for a state commission of inquiry have become an increasing emphasis of weekly Saturday night protests in Tel Aviv that were once focused on demanding a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza, all but one whom, the deceased police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, have since been returned to Israel.

One of the protest groups that is most critical of Netanyahu, the October Council, has promised a “week of rage” against the government this week as it advances the bill setting up its own committee. The group, made up of families of victims of the Hamas attack, has vowed to protest at the Knesset and the PMO alongside an extensive social media and texting campaign, Hebrew media report.

“This is not a law!” said Rafi Ben Shitrit, whose son Alroy was killed in the onslaught, during a press conference on Sunday in which he tore up a copy of the bill. “It is a smokescreen and the direct continuation of the campaign of trolling, trickery and confusion.”

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara likewise slammed Kallner’s bill in an opinion published by her office on Sunday.

“Before us is a ‘personal bill,’ that is ‘tailored to the measurements’ of the current government and coalition,” Baharav-Miara charged. “It is not the result of professional staff work, but rather of political discourse led by the prime minister in cooperation with coalition factions.”

On Monday, after Kallner’s bill advanced in committee, opposition politicians also volleyed criticism at the effort. Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, said the government was “again spitting in the face of the bereaved families.”

“At a time when the blood of the murdered is crying out for an independent state commission of inquiry, Netanyahu is fabricating for himself a political whitewashing committee to escape justice,” Golan wrote on X. “This lowly attempt to engineer a political inquiry is an admission of guilt.”

Kallner responded to criticism of his plan in a video on Sunday that noted that, under his proposal, any two opposition members of the committee could call any witnesses they want.

But he also suggested the inquiry could focus on the frequent targets of the right-wing government’s criticism, including Baharav-Miara, the judicial system and the anti-government protest movement.

“The judicial system doesn’t know how to investigate itself,” he said. “We want a government that will arrive at the truth and fix the State of Israel.”