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Refusing to Normalize the Abnormal: We Demand a State Commission of Inquiry Now!

>> Read all messages from Zehava Galon

Shalom to all,

Tomorrow, December 11th, the Supreme Court will begin hearing the petition filed on behalf of Zulat and 86 former ministers and members of Knesset by Attorney Dafna Holtz-Lechner, as well as two additional petitions, demanding that the government establish a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7. It’s worth noting that the very need to turn to the Supreme Court on this matter is abnormal, given that establishing such a commission should be the obvious and necessary step following a failure and disaster of such magnitude.

The demand for a state commission of inquiry is, first and foremost, a refusal to normalize the abnormal. Sitting in the government are individuals directly responsible for the calamity, hoping that we’ll come to terms with what happened, that we’ll gradually become a nation without standards. They are hoping to wear us down, step by step, until we come to expect nothing from the people whom we pay thousands of shekels per month to do their job.

The fall of the Assad dynasty is a remarkable example. Even a geopolitical shift of this magnitude became just another opportunity for Netanyahu, on the eve of and during his testimony in court today, to lash out in all directions. It took him less than 24 hours to take credit for the fall of the Syrian regime, while the families of the victims, hostages, and people displaced persons have been waiting since 7 October 2023 for him to take responsibility for the failures, shortcomings, and policies he led, initiated, and promoted.

In his speech yesterday, the Prime Minister reiterated his statement from January that “investigations and inquiries should be conducted after the war, certainly not in the midst of it.” Since then, he has prolonged the war for the sake of his political survival. Clearly, when he says “investigations and inquiries, ” he means investigations and inquiries that he will control.

Never mind that all polls to date indicate that a significant majority of the Israeli public supports the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, whose members would be appointed by the President of the Supreme Court and whose conclusions would have “teeth.” This is yet another spin by Netanyahu, a spin doctor who sees himself as a statesman, as he seeks to whitewash the greatest catastrophe in Israel’s history, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

This is the common thread running through all the events we’ve been witnessing lately: a Prime Minister who is in expert in self-promotion, who chooses personal considerations over the good of the country. However, amid all the spins and lies, we should not lose sight of yet another thread: Israel needs leadership, not PR experts. It needs someone who looks at developments in Syria and thinks of how they will affect Israel rather than his ongoing criminal trial. It needs someone who looks at October 7 and thinks of how to prevent such a debacle in the future rather than how to shield himself from its implications on his career. Right now, Israel has no such leader. And if we don’t rise up and reclaim our standards, we will continue to get more of the same.

This case is unlike any in the past, and thus requires the intervention of the Supreme Court. The people appointing the commission members must be totally separate from those being investigated. All gatekeepers, including the President of the State, support the establishment of a state commission of inquiry.

During his 17 years as Prime Minister, Netanyahu has never appointed a single state commission of inquiry. Even now, he has been attempting to push for a “toothless” inspection committee whose members would be appointed by him and whose findings would not be binding. We need a thorough cleanup, and we need to know exactly who did a proper job, who failed, and why. We must not let Netanyahu entrap us with a “government inspection committee” whose members would be selected by him.

Yours,

Zehava Galon

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.