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Pressure for inquiry on second anniversary of Gaza conflict
Bereaved families heckled Israel’s Prime Minister at yesterday’s official ceremony to mark the second anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, as they increased their calls for a state commission of inquiry to investigate the government’s handling of the conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the ceremony at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, the country’s largest military cemetery. But he was repeatedly interrupted by the parents of fallen soldiers who believe that an inquiry is needed to establish the decision-making process which took place at the time. Netanyahu referred to parents yesterday as his “brothers and sisters in mourning” and assured them that because of their sons, “peace was returned to the south”.
Netanyahu denied that such an inquiry was necessary, saying that Operation Protective Edge was “not the Second Lebanon War,” after which a state commission of inquiry found a number of deficiencies at the political and military level.
Yesterday, Jewish Home leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett appeared to back the families’ request.
He said: “Every commander in the army knows to learn lessons… Learning lessons is a sign of power and self-confidence, and whoever doesn’t learn from their mistakes is doomed to repeat them.”
Earlier this week, the families of those killed in the conflict sent a letter to President Reuven Rivlin, Netanyahu, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Chairman MK Avi Dichter and Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein, asking them to establish a state commission of inquiry. The letter read: “The State of Israel and you, its leaders, are obligated to carry out an objective, lesson-learning process by way of an external, independent committee.”
Operation Protective Edge lasted for 50 days in July and August 2014, during which 67 soldiers and five Israeli civilians were killed. The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee has not released a report into the conflict, although the State Comptroller has completed the draft of a report, which has been distributed to the relevant leaders it addresses.