Objects hurled at police in Meron as hundreds try to violate wartime Lag B’Omer stay ban

Several people in Meron hurl bottles at police officers enforcing the ban on the presence of more than 30 people at the village and compound on Lag B’Omer this year.

In addition to the bottles, at least one person points a water hose at police in a video taken outside the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd century sage whose presumed burial place is the focus of the annual pilgrimage led by tens of thousands of Jews on Lag B’Omer.

Police officers are seen escorting at least two men dressed like ultra-Orthodox Jews away from the compound.

Hundreds have ignored an Israel Defense Forces order declaring the area a closed military zone in connection with rocket fire from Hezbollah, the police say in a statement accompanying a video of the disturbances in Meron.

“Rioting began, including the hurling of objects at officers, and resisting the officers’ instructions to disperse,” the statement reads. “Reinforcement arrived and removed the rioters, who were not allowed at the compound,” adds the statement. It does not say whether police detained anyone in Meron.

Authorities this year allow a maximum of 30 people at any given time in Meron, which last year saw some 100,000 pilgrims celebrating Lag B’Omer on-site.