Search
Close this search box.

עב

Search
Close this search box.
Facebook Twitter Instagram

עב

Political Commission of Inquiry Disguised as National Investigation

>> Read the full position paper  

Bill for State-National Commission of Inquiry Into 7 October 2023 Massacre-2025, promoted by the government via MK Ariel Kellner, is intended for one purpose only: to fend off a decree absolute on the pending petition filed with the Supreme Court by Zulat for Equality and Human Rights and 86 former MKs.

In a decision unprecedented since the creation of the state, the Supreme Court issued an order nisi requiring the government to establish a state commission of inquiry. The government is required to respond by 4 January 2026 and show cause why the order nisi should not become a decree absolute. The bill is being advanced as part of this effort but it is doomed to fail, given that the Supreme Court has already ruled that of all possible investigative mechanisms, a state commission of inquiry is the only body qualified to investigate the events of October 7. It thus follows that the Supreme Court will not permit the creation of a political-parliamentary commission that deviates from the required principles of independence, neutrality, and professionalism.

The position paper shows that the bill is fundamentally flawed: it changes the rules of the game retroactively, is advanced amid a severe conflict of interest on the part of actors who are themselves meant to be investigated, is based on a political rather than professional appointment mechanism, poses minimal qualification requirements for commission members, includes provisions that are bound to paralyze the investigative process, and violates the balance set in the Commissions of Inquiry Law between determining the commission’s composition and defining the subjects of investigation. For all these reasons, the bill does not represent a legitimate alternative to a state commission of inquiry, but is rather an attempt to circumvent judicial review and evade public accountability.

>> Listen: An interview with Adv. Dafna Holtz-Lechner on the petition, Galei Zahal

WhatsApp-Image-2024-07-23-at-16.01.52

Clipboard01.jpg

Dr. Maha Sabbah Karkabi

 

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Tel Aviv University (2015), a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London (2015-2016), a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University (2016-2017), and a postdoctoral fellowship Ph.D. at the Humphrey Institute for Social Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2018-2020).
Dr. Maha Karbahi’s areas of interest focus on the connection between social change, family behavior, and gender inequality in societies in the process of change and specifically in Palestinian Arab society in Israel. Her research draws attention to the study of family life and employment, using a combined “ethnic lens” and “gender lens” and paying attention to the perspective of Palestinian Arab women, a group characterized by intersections between multiple marginal locations, which over the years has remained hidden from the research eye. Dr. Karkabi-Sabah’s research is published in professional journals and chapters in scientific books that are considered pioneers in family research, work, and gender equality.

פרופסור-אמריטה.jpg
 

Prof. Frances Raday

Professor Emeritus in the Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, in the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University and serves as a full professor in the College of Management’s academic track, where she also serves as chair of the graduate program and as honorary president of the Concord Center for International Law Absorption. Radai was a member of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council on discrimination against women. In addition, she is a prominent and feminist human rights activist.

WhatsApp-Image-2020-05-17-at-20.39.21

Dr. Rawia Aburabia 

Faculty member of Sapir Academic College’s School of Law, received her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research deals with the interface between law, gender, minorities, and human rights. Has published in leading journals on the subject of the matrimonial laws pertaining to Muslim women in Israel. Her book Under the Law, Outside Justice: Polygamy, Gendered Citizenship, and Colonialism in Israeli Law is expected to be published as part of the Gender Series of Kibbutz Meuhad Publishing House.

Dr. Aburabia has extensive experience in international human rights and public law. She has worked as a jurist for the Association for Civil Right and has been invited as a specialist to address such international forums as the United Nations and the European Parliament on the subject of indigenous communities and minority rights. She has interned with Human Rights Watch in Washington DC, and has been a member of the executive board of Amnesty International. In 2018, she was selected by the magazine Globes as one of the 40 most promising young persons in Israel under the age of 40.

 

18076724_10154573442149677_1211984367607245921_o-1

Ron Kessler

With over two decades of experience in the field of digital content, Ron has participated in numerous political and social campaigns. He helped run the digital activity of senior public officials, and worked in various NGOs. Ron is a fundamentally optimistic man, who believes that Israel can be changed and so can people. Lives in Tel Aviv.