Occupied Jerusalem- The Israeli Supreme Court decided to suspend the investigation initiated by State Comptroller Netanyahu Engelman, into the failures of the army and the General Security Agency (Shin Bet) in the events of October 7, 2023, until the hearing is held next July.
This decision brought back to the forefront the call to establish an official investigation committee into the failure to prevent the sudden attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on the “Gaza envelope” settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the establishment of this committee, and reiterated his position that the investigation into the intelligence failure to prevent the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle should only take place when the war on Gaza ends, in contrast to the position of the opposition camp, which constantly demands the formation of the committee immediately.
Fault points
Netanyahu’s position intersected with that of Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, who opposed this investigation and said that it “harms the war effort.”
The court’s decision comes in the context of a petition submitted by the “Quality Governance” movement and the “Israel Defensive Shield Forum”, which demanded that the government be obligated to form an official investigation committee to investigate the failure to confront the attack of October 7, 2023 and the Gaza war. They revealed fundamental failures at the political, military and intelligence levels, which is the largest security and political failure in the history of Israel, as stated in the text of the petition.
According to the head of “Quality of Governance,” lawyer Eliad Sharga, investigating and drawing conclusions to prevent the recurrence of these failures is “a moral and ethical duty towards the dead of Israel who sacrificed their lives, dozens of settlements, and thousands of people who were evacuated.”
Sharga said in the petition to the court that “only an independent and impartial investigative committee with broad powers and holding public hearings can investigate the truth, identify defects, recommend their correction, and restore public confidence in state institutions and systems.”
He pointed out that after the October 1973 war, and despite the difficult circumstances at the time and the fighting that was still ongoing, “the Agranat Committee was established in only 43 days, which raises questions about the current government’s ignoring of the urgent need for this, despite the passage of 8 months since the outbreak of the war and the disaster.” Tragic.”
abstention
The head of “Quality of Governance” stressed that Netanyahu himself and a number of senior ministers and heads of the security establishment called for the establishment of an official investigation committee, but they are now refraining from taking practical procedures and steps to establish such a committee.
According to Sharga, other parties – such as the army, the state comptroller, and the Shin Bet – lack the tools, powers, and independence of an official investigation committee.
Benny Ashkenazi, judicial affairs correspondent for the Israeli website Walla, considered that the court’s decision to suspend the investigation amounts to preparation for the formation of an official investigation committee headed by a judge, in contrast to Netanyahu’s position, which opposes its formation.
The reporter said that her decision strengthens the position of the government’s judicial advisor, Ghali Bhairav Mayara, who recommended – in her response to the petition – the necessity of forming an official investigation committee into the security and intelligence failure and failure in the events of last October 7.
He believes that establishing an official investigative committee is a way to confront the International Court of Justice’s actions against Israel for committing war crimes, and the threat to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
The reporter revealed that Netanyahu asked the government’s judicial advisor to find another investigative mechanism, other than an official government investigation committee, to respond to the “allegations” in The Hague, but Mayara responded to him with the necessity of establishing an official investigation committee to confront international measures.
Account inventory
For his part, the judicial affairs correspondent for the Maariv newspaper, Abraham Bloch, believes that the court has taken a dramatic decision that raises many questions regarding everything related to the public’s right to know and access information, even in a state of emergency and times of war.
He asked, “Do Israelis really deserve answers about the failures of Black Saturday last October 7?” He continued, “If we asked anyone on the street, he would answer yes. This miserable failure that claimed the lives of many Israelis requires the responsible bodies to provide the public with an accounting.”
But when you look at the behavior of the Israeli army and the Shin Bet, Maariv’s correspondent says, “It is not certain that the response is positive. But the question is: Is the person who conducts the examination acceptable to the entities subject to scrutiny or not? The answer is no, as it is forbidden to criticize the army and the Shin Bet during fighting.” .
More than 8 months after this miserable failure, it is still not possible to criticize the army and the Shin Bet. No one can know what happened. They prepared a secret document stating that it is not permissible to criticize them, even the state comptroller – who holds the highest security rating available – He cannot know what is in it, says Maariv’s correspondent.
On the military side, Reserve Colonel Noam Tivon considered the failure of last October 7 “the largest and most dangerous failure in the history of Israel.” In his opinion, there is an existential “need” to investigate this failure through an official investigation committee headed by a Supreme Court judge “to conduct a radical, in-depth and comprehensive investigation without fear.”
He added – to the website of the Makor Rishon newspaper – that the formation of an official investigation committee to find out the roots of the failure is necessary, from among decision-makers at the political and military levels and other security and intelligence branches.
The Israeli reserve colonel said that the army is fighting a “difficult war” and only an official investigation committee will allow such serious failures to be avoided in the future and “learn lessons and draw lessons to correct the course and strengthen the defense” of Israel’s security.