Following Mount Meron disaster, state said looking to take control of holy site

Plan reportedly based on 2014 outline by Yair Lapid, removing control from Haredi groups and ending illegal construction on the hilltop

By ToI Staff 26 March 2022, 6:18 pm
Illustrative: Israeli rescue forces and police at the scene of the fatal crush during Lag B'Omer celebrations on Mount Meron, in northern Israel, on April 30, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Nearly a year after the fatal crush at Mount Meron that killed 45 people, the state is said to be preparing a plan to take control of the hilltop and its holy site.

According to Kan news, the plan by justice officials is based on an outline formulated by then-finance minister Yair Lapid in 2014. Lapid presented that plan following two scathing State Comptroller reports regarding arrangements at Mount Meron.

It would have seen control transferred to the government from the various ultra-Orthodox organizations that run it, and put an end to all illegal construction at the site.

A number of Haredi organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice against the plan, and the issue became bogged down in legal battles.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid speaks at a weekly cabinet meeting, at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, on February 13, 2022. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP)

During Lag B’Omer festivities at Mount Meron in April 2021, 45 people died in a crush that was the worst civilian disaster in Israeli history.

The tragedy occurred on April 30, as thousands celebrating Lag B’Omer at the gravesite of the second-century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai streamed through a narrow walkway. Some people fell on the walkway and down a flight of stairs at its end, toppling onto those below and precipitating a fatal crushing domino effect.

The deadly crush has been blamed on improperly installed ramparts and walkways, as well as a failure to limit numbers at the site. Different areas of the sprawling Mount Meron site were administered by different ultra-Orthodox groups, making regulation and organization difficult.

Victims of the April 30, 2021, Mount Meron disaster: Top row (L-R): Chen Doron, Haim Rock, Ariel Tzadik, Yossi Kohn, Yisrael Anakvah, Yishai Mualem, Yosef Mastorov, Elkana Shiloh and Moshe Levy; 2nd row (L-R): Shlomo Zalman Leibowitz, Shmuel Zvi Klagsbald, Mordechai Fakata, Dubi Steinmetz, Abraham Daniel Ambon, Eliezer Gafner, Yosef Greenbaum, Yehuda Leib Rubin and Yaakov Elchanan Starkovsky; 3rd row (L-R): Haim Seler, Yehoshua Englard, Moshe Natan Neta Englard, Yedidia Hayut, Moshe Ben Shalom, David Krauss, Eliezer Tzvi Joseph, Yosef Yehuda Levy and Yosef Amram Tauber; 4th row (L-R): Menachem Knoblowitz, Elazar Yitzchok Koltai, Yosef David Elhadad, Shraga Gestetner, Yonatan Hebroni, Shimon Matalon, Elazar Mordechai Goldberg, Moshe Bergman and Daniel Morris; 5th row (L-R): Ariel Achdut, Moshe Mordechai Elhadad, Hanoch Slod, Yedidya Fogel, Menahem Zakbah, Simcha Diskind, Moshe Tzarfati, Nahman Kirshbaum and Eliyahu Cohen.

A state commission of inquiry into the incident is ongoing, though it was slowed following the death of Miriam Naor, the head of the investigation, in January.

That same month, government ministers said they had agreed to grant NIS 500,000 ($160,000) in “initial aid” to each of the families of the 45 victims.

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