A disagreement regarding the members of the committee reportedly broke out on Thursday evening, during a meeting of Israeli ministers.
Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, criticized on Friday a committee formed by Army Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, to investigate the October 7 events, Anadolu news agency reported.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the investigation committee – formed by Halevi and headed by Israeli former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz – also includes Reserve Maj. Gen. Yoav Har-Even and Reserve Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash.
A disagreement regarding the members of the committee reportedly broke out on Thursday evening.
“A meeting of top ministers intended to discuss planning for the next phases of Israel’s war against Hamas and the administration of Gaza after the war ended in a loud and angry dustup between ministers and military brass, (…) as right-wing lawmakers cried foul over plans for the army to probe its own mistakes,” The Times of Israel reported.
“Ben-Gvir, a terrorism-supporter who didn’t serve in the army, attacks Shaul Mofaz, the IDF Chief of Staff during the 2014 Gaza War and an Israeli hero, and other ministers try to humiliate IDF commanders.” https://t.co/lKteQQKrz8.
— Lluís Bassets (@lbassets) January 6, 2024
Following the meeting, both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich expressed their opposition to the members of the committee.
“The appointment of Mofaz, one of the main architects of the promiscuous secession, a political figure, and above all an essential partner in the conception that brought us to this point, to the investigation team for the events of 7/10, is in the sense of a crime,” Ben-Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a statement on X.
The term ‘secession’ is used in reference to Israel’s decision, in August 2005, to redeploy its forces around the occupied Gaza Strip.
“The investigation should also include the issue of the historical mistake of the deportation, and certainly not appoint its architects to examine the failure that is a result of their actions,” he added.
Ben-Gvir said that “the same goes for Ze’evi-Farkash,” referring to the former head of the Military Intelligence Division.
“These are people whose actions need to be investigated. These should not be the investigators,” Ben Gvir added.
🗣️ ❝Now is the time to coordinate an emigration project❞
Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says war in Gaza is opportunity to encourage Palestinians to migrate from enclave as Israeli army continues its devastating onslaught against it https://t.co/8pDIQ76bp0 pic.twitter.com/ZmlQFOBzKi
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) January 3, 2024
For his part, Israeli Finance Minister and head Ministerial War Council of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Bezalel Smotrich, said in a statement that “in the last five minutes there was a stormy discussion on the issue of the investigative team”.
He noted that Mofaz is a “political figure” and Farkash “supported protests against controversial judicial reform laws” before the war.
“My position: Operative investigations designed to draw lessons relevant to the continuation of the war must be done during the war, all the rest after the war. As far as I understand, this is also the position of the Chief of Staff,” Smotrich said.
“Regarding the composition: it was possible to find more suitable and less political people, mainly to maintain the neutrality of the Israel Defence Forces and trust in it,” he added.
Perhaps start by stopping your citizens from joining the genocidal #Israeli army, impose sanctions & stop supporting this apartheid state. You all know very well their ethnic cleansing intentions for #Palestinians so why act surprised! Such racist rhetoric by Gvir & Smotrich is… https://t.co/xjISY0BO7o
— ali hadi (@alihadi68) January 4, 2024
Netanyahu’s government is being subjected to a campaign of widespread criticism due to its failure to prevent the military operation carried out by the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas on 7 October.
Since then, Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 22,722 Palestinians have been killed, and 58,166 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(PC, Anadolu)
