By The Jerusalem Post (World News) | Created at 2025-01-01 14:05:07 | Updated at 2025-01-04 08:17:44
2 days ago
Rothman cuts Knesset meeting short as October 7 victims' families demand a national inquiry into government failures.
By ELIAV BREUER JANUARY 1, 2025 15:49 Updated: JANUARY 1, 2025 15:51
Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman seen at a Knesset committee, December 16, 2024
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Knesset Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman cut short a committee meeting on Wednesday after family members of October 7 victims insisted on speaking despite Rothman’s demand that they stop.
After Rothman exited the committee room, the family members remained and continued to speak.
While Knesset committees have hosted family members of hostages nearly every day since the massacre, members of a relatively new organization demanded to receive the floor as well but were denied by Rothman. The organization is called the “October Council,” and it represents over 1,000 families of victims of the massacre who are demanding that the government form a National Commission of Inquiry.
One of the people who spoke after Rothman’s exit was Rafi Ben-Shitrit, a former mayor and father of soldier Elroee Ben-Shitrit, who was killed on October 7. Ben-Shitrit was a member of the Civil Commission of Inquiry, a private initiative whose final report was published in November.
The commission found that The Hamas massacre was made possible by an“arrogant” groupthink led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which stifled critical voices, entrenched the mistaken “conception” that money could buy quiet from Hamas, and fed the state’s unpreparedness in nearly every aspect on the day of the massacre and the days and weeks after it.
Delegitimizing the court
Ben-Shitrit called Rothman a “disgrace and a shame to the State of Israel” and argued that Rothman was not a worthy representative of Religious Zionism. Responding to attempts by the government to form an alternative commission of inquiry whose members are not independently elected, Ben-Shitrit said that the government “will not succeed in escaping the truth and justice.”
“The fact that you have no faith in the court is because for two or three years you have been grounding and delegitimizing and dehumanizing them, and day and night you curse and revile all the state systems of the State of Israel. We demand justice for our sons and daughters,” Ben-Shitrit said.
Rothman said in response to the incident that while family members are always given time to voice their opinions, in this case, “a Knesset member arrived with bereaved families, victims, and media to disrupt the meeting and prevent it from taking place.”
“It is unacceptable to use bereaved families and the families of hostages for political purposes. I will ensure that the committee's discussions continue as scheduled," Rothman said.
The October Council said in a statement, “Instead of hearing the cries of the families, Knesset member Rothman chose to silence us. Those who try to cover up the failure are silencing us. Knesset members who silence bereaved families are a disgrace that has not been seen in the history of the State of Israel. We will not be deterred by the bullying of the Knesset members and will continue to fight until a national commission of inquiry is established."
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The Constitution Committee meeting was about a bill proposal to block the administrative detention of Israeli citizens, unless the defense minister “has reasonable grounds to believe that a citizen of the State of Israel is a member of a terrorist organization listed in the appendix to the law. The appendix will include terrorist organizations operating with the aim of harming the existence of the State of Israel or with the aim of carrying out acts of terrorism against its citizens." The bill is widely viewed as an attempt to block the use of administrative detentions of Jewish extremists in the West Bank.
