Anti-government protesters pan bill for political Oct. 7 inquiry, said set for vote this week

Anti-government protesters held weekly protests Saturday evening in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, with the relative of a hostage kidnapped to Gaza on October 7, 2023, and later murdered in captivity, slamming the coalition’s legislation to form a politically appointed commission of inquiry into the failures that enabled the Hamas onslaught rather than a state commission. The bill is expected to come up this week for its first of three Knesset plenum votes, a report said Saturday. A state committee, Israel’s highest investigative authority and the one surveys have consistently shown is preferred 7, comprises independent experts appointed . According to the draft law, the coalition and opposition would each appoint three members of the six-member commission. But even if the opposition refuses to appoint members for the panel, as it says it will, the commission could still operate with just the coalition-appointed members, according to the legislation. Participants said their loudspeaker equipment was confiscated. The five detainees were later released. Police said in a statement that the gathering was disturbing public order and that “the protesters held an unauthorized procession, blocked roads, and used loudspeaker equipment at high volume before Shabbat had ended.” According to Haaretz, seizure of the equipment interrupted a speech given ’alon, who served in a previous Netanyahu government but who has since become harshly critical of the prime minister. Also on Saturday evening, Channel 12 reported that the bill is likely to be brought for its first reading in the Knesset this week. The bill passed a preliminary hearing in December but has been fiercely criticized , which has vowed to boycott any commission set up under the terms of the legislation. Demonstrators clash with police during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government near the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, June 13, 2026. (Jamal Awad/Flash90) The opposition has demanded a state commission of inquiry, which is entirely independent of the government once it is created, but requires a cabinet decision to be established. The government has strongly resisted a state commission, however. Netanyahu and other cabinet ministers have claimed in public that a commission appointed . He expressed derision toward the Haredi effort to pass a quasi-constitutional Basic Law equating the privileges of draft-evading yeshiva students to those of Israelis who perform mandatory military service. “Don’t you dare tell me learning Torah protects us,” he said. “Anyone who dares say that next to me, I’ll take them six feet under so they can say that to my Oriya.” “The fire in me burns hotter than the flames of hell,” he added.