2006 Israeli Reserve Soldiers' Protest - Prospects For A State Commission

Prospects For A State Commission

Yaakov Hasdai, a member of the Agranat Commission, the national commission which investigated the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, said that he "support the call for the resignation of the top political echelon and the establishment of an inquiry commission" While the impact the protest had on the Israeli government remained uncertain, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a visit to Nahariya promised to invest over 2.5 billion dollars in northern Israel and to establish a commission of inquiry — but fell short of expressly calling it a "state commission" (legally, only a state commission has authority that can supersede the government). Olmert was expected to announce what type of commission will be formed within a short while. On August 25, the Israel Broadcasting Authority reported that a state commission of inquiry is appeared likely to be formed within several days. Olmert was set to decide whether to appoint a governmental commission of inquiry or a more substantive state commission, or some other formula by August 27.

On September 9, tens of thousands participated in a demonstration calling for a state commission, which was held in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv. Among those who delivered speeches were Yossi Sarid and Moshe Arens. Much of the following efforts to establish mechanisms to investigate the war, were undertaken while the protests were active, and their responses to these attempts on the part of Olmert's government, played an important role in shaping public opinion and arguably, the eventual widening mandate of the commission which was formed.

Read more about this topic:  2006 Israeli Reserve Soldiers' Protest

Famous quotes containing the words prospects, state and/or commission:

    A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Mine was, as it were, the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields; as some states are civilized, and others half-civilized, and others savage or barbarous, so my field was, though not in a bad sense, a half-cultivated field. They were beans cheerfully returning to their wild and primitive state that I cultivated, and my hoe played the Ranz des Vaches for them.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
    Thomas Paine (1737–1809)