Supreme Court Judge Neal Hendel stated that a bench of three judges will within 21 days hear the petition filed by the Gush Shalom movement. In the appeal lodged through lawyers Gaby Lasky, Lymor Goldstein and Neri Ramati, "Gush Shalom" asked the Supreme Court to order the dissolution of the Tirkel Commission which is " equiped with neither the mandate nor the judicial powers needed in order to properly investigate the case of the Gaza flotilla. Instead, Gush Shalom demands that a full-fledged Judicial Commission of Inquiry be formed.

Among other things the petition asserts that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak deliberately excluded from the Tirkel Commission's terms of reference any investigation of the decision-making process conducted by themselves, and prevented any possibility of the Tirkel Commission probing their acts and possibly finding them faulty. This decision is tinged with the suspicion of unworthy motives, and the possibility that the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister preferred their own personal interest over the finding of the truth.

Members of the commission are also explicitly barred from hearing the testimony from people directly involved, i.e. the naval commandos who took over the boats and the officers who oversaw the operation, up to the commander of the navy himself. The commission is instead required to accept uncricially the results of the internal investigation carried out inside the army.

Moreover, in its terms of reference the commission is required to collect information and express an opinion on the organizers and participants of the Gaza flotilla their identity and their motives. However, the commission was not provided with the basic instrument needed for such an investigation, the power to grant immunity from arrest to the people in question, citizens of Turkey and other countries, should any of them seek to come to Israel and testify before the commission. In this way it was ascertained in advance that the Tirkel Commission's investigation on this subject will lack the testimonies of the people directly concerned.

Due to all the above reasons, the appellants ask the court to issue an order requiring the state representatives to explain why they would not initiate a full-fledged Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the IDF takeover of the Gaza flotilla on May 31, 2010. That is an issue of vital public interest which requires urgent clarification – the conditions set down in the 1968 Law on Judicial Commissions of Inquiry. As stated, the court will hear the appeal within 21 days.

The appeal quotes the decision of the Supreme Court in the appeal lodged in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War by the Ometz movement, which opposed the creation of the Winograd Commission of Inquiry. At the time the Supreme Court rejected the appeal. However its verdict stated that the Winograd Commission, while not being a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, was given wide judicial powers similar to those of such a commission. Such is not the case with regard to the Tirkel Commission, which is made deliberately powerless and unable to take effective action.

Uri Avnery and Adam Keller, who signed the petition on behalf of Gush Shalom said that the porpose of creating the Tirkel Commission was to appease the international public opinion, but it has failed in advance in this task. A commission whose competence and credentials are doubted by many Israelis will definitely make little impression outside the country.