MOUNT MERON, Israel – Calls for accountability following a disaster that resulted in the death of 45 people in a holy location in northern Israel on Saturday as questions arose over the fault of the government, religious leaders and police.
The rush to Mount Meron early Friday during an annual pilgrimage, one of Israel’s worst disasters, has been warned for years by local politicians, journalists and ombudsmen that the place has become a death trap.
On Saturday, the Israeli news media reported that senior police officers had accused the Ministry of Religious Services for signing the security procedures for the event earlier this week.
A police spokesman said, however, that no additional precautions have been taken to secure the site since the rush. Three police officers on duty at the mountain said they had not received an instruction to limit the crowd since the death on Friday. Pilgrims who stayed on the mountain continued to walk through the site of the Stampede, which had not been cordoned off.
Politicians and political commentators accused the police and other authorities of being involved in the tragedy. One of the people investigated is the Minister of Public Security, Amir Ohana, who oversees the police and emergency services and also takes part in the pilgrimage himself.
Successive Israeli governments have been accused of turning a blind eye to security issues on the mountain for more than a decade in order not to alienate the ultra-Orthodox Jews who attend the annual celebration known in Hebrew as Hillula. Seven of the last nine Israeli government coalitions have relied on the support of ultra-Orthodox parties.
Regarding the Minister of Public Security, Anshel Pfeffer, a political commentator and author, wrote in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “Ohana would not have considered, for even a minute, restricting the arrival at Hillula in Meron and assigning the Ultra anger – Orthodox politicians who control the fate of his master, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “
“But his predecessors didn’t consider it either,” he added.
Mr Netanyahu is currently fighting to cobble together a new coalition government that will need the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties in order to have the chance to form a parliamentary majority.
A senior police officer, Morris Chen, said Friday night that police protocols had not been influenced by political interference.
Public Security Minister Ohana posted on Twitter that the police had done their best.
“There must and will be a thorough, thorough and real investigation that will find out how and why this happened,” he later said in a video, adding, “From the bottom of my heart I want to partake of the grief of the families, who have lost the most precious of all and wish the injured a quick and complete recovery. “
The attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, hired an independent watchdog investigating allegations of police wrongdoing to assess allegations of police negligence leading up to the disaster.
But on Saturday, Kan, the state broadcaster, said the watchdog was reluctant to oversee the investigation, given the role of other officials and entities outside of the police force.
Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews visit Mount Meron every spring for the festival of Lag b’Omer. It honors the death of a second century Jewish mystic, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, whose tomb is on the mountain.
Crowds were banned in 2020, but this year about 100,000 returned after a successful vaccination campaign that has allowed much of Israeli life to return to something that is nearing normal.
The event has long drawn calls to limit the number of pilgrims allowed to attend. The grounds are made up of narrow, sloping hallways and small, cramped spaces that visitors have often warned about being unsuitable for crowds.
The disaster began in the early hours of Friday when crowds gathered in a small arena next to the tomb to watch the lighting of several ceremonial bonfires. Thousands of people then tried to walk up a steep, narrow slope that was eventually connected to a narrow tunnel by a short flight of stairs.
As they neared the steps to the tunnel, some slipped onto the front metal floor of the slope, witnesses said. This resulted in a sudden blockade that trapped hundreds on the ground. As more and more pilgrims left the ceremony above, they trampled on those below.
In 2008 and 2011, the State Comptroller, a government watchdog, warned that the site’s pathways were too narrow to accommodate so many people. The township council chairman said he tried to close it at least three times.
In 2013, the police chief of Northern Israel warned colleagues about a possible fatal accident. And in 2018 the editor of a major Haredi magazine said it was a recipe for disaster.
On Friday evening, a recent State Comptroller representative said the lack of a coherent governance structure at the site made enforcing an adequate security system there more difficult.
Various parts of the website fall under the jurisdiction of four competing private religious institutions, all of which oppose government intervention.
There was “one major flaw,” Liora Shimon, deputy general manager of the controller, told Kan. “It is the fact that this site is not under the responsibility of a single management.”
Yossi Amsalem, 38, a survivor of the tragedy, said the chaotic site management added to the rush but hasn’t stopped blaming any particular group. Mr. Amsalem said the passage where the rush occurred had been used for oncoming traffic, which made movement even more difficult.
“The path should be either to get on or off,” said Amsalem from a hospital bed in Safed, a town across the Meron Valley. “There shouldn’t be this confusion.”
The tragedy met with sympathy and solidarity in the religious-secular divide in Israel. Health workers said 2,200 Israelis donated blood to help the injured on Mount Meron. The flags are flown by half of the staff in official state buildings on Sunday as the country celebrated a day of national mourning.
But the disaster also sparked a debate over religious-secular tensions in Israel and the level of autonomy that should be granted to parts of the ultra-Orthodox community that oppose state control.
While many ultra-Orthodox Jews play an active role in Israeli life, some reject the concept of Zionism, while others reject participation in the Israeli military or workforce and oppose government interference in their educational system.
Tensions mounted during the pandemic as parts of the community enraged the secular public by ignoring government-enforced regulations on coronavirus, even though the disease devastated its ranks far more frequently than the rest of the population.
For the survivors of the Meron disaster, the swarm was therefore the last in a series of struggles and setbacks, rather than a joyful post-pandemic return to normalcy and tradition.
“It was such a difficult year,” said Moshe Helfgot, a 22-year-old whose right leg was broken in two places in the swarm. “And now there is another disaster.”
Irit Pazner Garshowitz and Jonathan Rosen contributed to the coverage.
