The High Court of Justice ruled today (Monday) that the government must formulate an outline for investigating the events of October 7 by July 1, as part of the petitions filed demanding that the government be forced to establish a state investigation committee - which is unacceptable to half of the people.
Regarding the fact that the government has not yet determined whether and how the events will be investigated, it was written: "This state of affairs is unacceptable, and it raises considerable legal difficulties.".
In their decision, the judges emphasized that the government has broad discretion in how to implement the obligation imposed on it, and therefore it was given two more months.
The judges explained: "On the one hand, the time is long overdue to begin investigating the events of October 7, and on the other hand, the government is given broad discretion as to how to implement the duty imposed on it as aforesaid to investigate the events. Given the difficulty in providing judicial remedies in our case, we have deemed it appropriate at this stage to allow the government an additional stay of approximately two months, in the hope that it will soon find a suitable outline for investigating the events, which will gain broad public approval.".
Regarding the judges' authority to discuss the issue - it is written: "On a principled level, we would like to clarify that, according to long-standing case law, this court has the authority to discuss petitions concerning the establishment or non-establishment of a state commission of inquiry; this is subject to the fact that the discretion granted to the government in this matter is extremely broad.
""However, the mere existence of the authority to conduct judicial review in this matter does not reduce the difficulties that may arise in exercising it.""
The fact that the elections will be held in exactly six months means that when the government responds to the High Court of Justice, Israel will be in an election atmosphere and any law may encounter legal obstacles.
Senior political commentator Amit Segal responded: "In two months, by all accounts, we will be just weeks away from a transitional government in which decisions cannot be made.".
