Supreme Court Petition: Order Government to Appoint Inquiry Commission Into October 7 Events

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Zulat, along with 84 former elected officials, including former Knesset speakers, government ministers, and members of Knesset, filed a petition to the Supreme Court to order the Israeli government to establish a state commission of inquiry to look into the events of October 7.

Filed on our behalf by Adv. Dafna Holtz-Lechner, an unprecedented large-scale petition expanding on petitions already submitted to the court demands the establishment of a state commission of inquiry and attendant remedies. The petitioners affirm that “the appointment of a state commission of inquiry is needed urgently, first and foremost in order to draw the necessary lessons to prevent the recurrence of similar events in the future, as well as to restore the people’s trust in all governmental systems and authorities and to initiate the healing and recovery process direly needed by Israeli society.”

The petition provides a detailed account of many facts pertaining to the events of October 7, among other things, “in order to impart the serious danger that the government’s persistent refusal to appoint such a commission poses to the very ability to get to the truth. This, due to the huge amount of evidence, witnesses, and findings necessitated by such an investigation, which with each passing day, in addition to the nine months that have already elapsed,

increases the difficulty of witnesses to recall specific events about which they will be called upon to testify, as well as the difficulty in collecting the myriad of evidence and findings such an investigation requires. Moreover, the passing time may in the future help anybody found by the commission to be fully or partially responsible or guilty for the events to obfuscate or eliminate evidence and findings.”

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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.