Last update - 00:00 18/09/2006
Winograd Committee meets, will make discussions open to public
By Aluf Benn and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents
A committee covened on Monday to examine the government and the military's handling of this summer's war in Lebanon, under the leadership of retired judge Eliyahu Winograd.
The Winograd Committee decided on Monday that it would reveal all unclassified contents of its deliberations to the public.
The members of the committee said the move to disclose the information was in accordance with a law that stipulates that all discussions by a probe panel would be open to the public, unless members of the comittee feel the information must be kept confidential.
The committee can choose not to disclose information if it feels it could harm national security, diplomatic ties or the country's economy.
The committee will examine the preparations of the political echelon and the defense establishment to counter the Hezbollah threat following the Israel Defense Forces pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000, as well as its conduct during the war in the July-August 2006.
The committee will begin its work Monday morning with a meeting to discuss its working procedures. Among other matters, it will decide whether its deliberations will be open to the press.
Twenty ministers voted Sunday in favor of the committee. Ministers Ophir Pines-Paz and Eitan Kabel, both from Labor, opposed the proposal; Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz abstained. Following the government meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Armir Peretz signed the appointments of the committee members.
Ministers Pines, Kabel and Mofaz supported the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, but agreed that the members of the Winograd committee were worthy of the task. The three ministers said the fact that Olmert and Peretz appointed the members of the committee that would examine their own conduct appeared to be inappropriate.
The committee will enjoy some of the privileges of a state commission of inquiry, such as the right to subpoena witnesses. As well, testimony and the committee's reports will not be admissible in legal proceedings.
Government secretary Israel Maimon said that the committee will enjoy complete independence from the minute it begins its activity, "just as the attorney general is appointed by the government, and from that moment on, enjoys independence of action."
In addition to Winograd, the committee is composed of Professors Yehezkel Dror and Ruth Gavison, and retired Major Generals Menachem Einan and Haim Nadel.
Olmert told the cabinet that initially he had recommended former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar to head the government-appointed committee of investigation, but the justice turned the offer down.
After Defense Minister Amir Peretz set up a committee under former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak to carry out an internal inquiry into the conduct of the defense establishment, Olmert said that he decided to make do with a public committee of inquiry that would investigate the conduct of the political echelon. He had recommended the appointment of former Mossad head, Nahum Admoni, to head it.
Olmert said he returned to the idea of a committee headed by a judge once it became clear that the Lipkin-Shahak committee would not work.