The Cabinet on Sunday evening postponed by three months the decision to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the events of October 7, 2023.
During the discussion, a dispute arose regarding the establishment of a state inquiry commission - with a significant portion of the ministers opposing the idea.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi threatened during the meeting, "Even if the judges of the Supreme Court decide by force to establish a commission of inquiry on their own, just as they decided without authority to appoint Justice Yitzhak Amit as President of the Supreme Court, we must not cooperate."
He added, "There is an elected government in Israel, and it will not leave the fate of the investigation in the hands of those who need to be investigated themselves."
On the other hand, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar argued in favor of the establishment of a state commission of inquiry and proposed examining a legislative amendment under which the government could authorize any of the former presidents or deputy presidents of the Supreme Court to determine the composition of the committee.
Sa'ar recommended that the government set up a ministerial team to consider and advise on the mandate of the investigation and the timeline of the events to be investigated. He said that, if the Swords of Iron War is included in the investigation's mandate, logic dictates that the commission should be established once the war concludes. However, if the investigation only includes the events of October 7 and what led to them, it can be established now.
During the meeting, a confrontation also developed between Sa'ar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. "You are adopting the practice of heckling in the Knesset, where I am willing to accept it, but here in a Cabinet meeting, it is not acceptable to me; I ask that you respond after I have finished speaking," Sa'ar told her.
Earlier, Baharav-Miara had argued that "a government inquiry committee, unlike a state commission, receives its budget from the government, which might exert undue influence, unlike the budget for a state commission which comes from the judicial authority."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wondered, "Who will fund a state commission of inquiry? Who funds the judicial authority? We will not provide a budget for a commission of inquiry that is not in line with our views."
The Attorney General argued, "We presented our position to the court in The Hague that we intend to establish a state commission; we cannot backtrack." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, "Who approved that?" and Baharav-Miara said to him, "You did."
Before that, Netanyahu attacked Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Ronen Bar, who had requested to participate in the meeting but was denied.
The Attorney General said that the Shin Bet Chief's position was not presented to the ministers, and Netanyahu slammed the table and said, "He's just a clerk. What does he have to do with the decision on a state commission of inquiry?"
Most of the Cabinet ministers agreed with Netanyahu that it would be a grave mistake to conduct an investigation during the war, arguing, "It drains the energy and attention of those involved from the war effort to the investigative effort and harms the war."
Some ministers who took part in the discussion said that the investigation should start from the Oslo period, while others argued that it should begin with the Disengagement plan, which they claim led to the events of October 7.