Netanyahu visits Meron injured in hospital amid questions over government role
At Haifa’s Rambam medical center, PM says casualties receiving ‘marvelous care,’ adds some of them owe their lives to rescue teams
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Amid growing questions over the lack of state oversight at the Mount Meron compound, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited some of the people injured in a disaster at the site last week that saw 45 people crushed to death during a religious festival.
Israel was observing a national day of mourning on Sunday for the victims, who ranged in age from 9 to 65. Sixteen of over 150 people initially hospitalized remained in the hospital Sunday evening.
At Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, Netanyahu said the casualties were receiving “marvelous care,” and added that some of the people there owed their lives to the rescue efforts by emergency services.
“I was impressed by the marvelous care that they are receiving from the medical staff here, just as I was impressed by the rescue operation, which undoubtedly saved lives, including those of several patients here,” Netanyahu said, as he left the hospital, which has treated some of the most severe cases from the crush.
“We are praying for their well-being. One of the parents told me the sentence that summarizes everything: ‘Here one reveals that the people of Israel has one heart.’ Our heart is with the injured and all of us hope and pray for their full recovery,” the prime minister said.
Netanyahu’s comments came amid calls for the state to take full control over the Meron site, and for an official state inquiry to be set up to investigate the disaster. The prime minister has promised a “thorough” investigation, but he has not responded to the calls for a state commission of inquiry that could require testimony from the political echelon and could issue conclusions and recommendations regarding any political culpability.
Following the disaster during Lag B’Omer celebrations, and under intensifying public, political, and media scrutiny of the chain of events that led to the tragedy at the gravesite of second-century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a picture has emerged of a facility caught in a years-long tug of war between various authorities, religious sects, and interest groups that left it bereft of proper, unified state oversight, even as constant warning bells were being sounded regarding its potential for catastrophe.
Since the disaster, several former police chiefs have characterized Meron — Israel’s second-most visited Jewish holy site after the Western Wall — as a kind of extraterritorial facility. It was administered by several ultra-Orthodox groups, while the National Center for the Protection of Holy Places, part of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, apparently had some responsibility over it as well, as did the local authority, and the police. But ultimately, no single state body had full responsibility.
“The site needs to be handled differently. What is happening at the moment does not respect the place or human life. The state is obligated to take responsibility for it,” Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau told Army Radio Sunday.
The head of the United Torah Judaism party, Moshe Gafni, told the Kan public broadcaster that the Mount Meron site “looks like Eastern Asia. The place hasn’t been touched since the establishment of the state.”
He added: “You can’t have so many people come to such a small space and not have a disaster.”
At the same time, in a letter to the prime minister, the Retired Police Commissioners and Major General’s Forum said Sunday that only a thorough investigation examining the role of all bodies involved in organizing the annual event can provide sufficient input to prevent another disaster in the future.
“The Mount Meron incident is not the sole responsibility of the Israel Police,” wrote the forum, which is led by ex-Israel Police chief Moshe Karadi.
The letter came as the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department began its own probe of the force’s role in the planning and securing of the festival attended by some 100,000 people, principally from the ultra-Orthodox community. The Israel Police has also launched an investigation.
The tragedy occurred early Friday, as thousands streamed through a narrow walkway that was covered with metal flooring and may have been wet, causing some people to fall underfoot during the rush for the exit. Some apparently fell on the walkway and down a flight of stairs at its end, toppling onto those below and precipitating a fatal crushing domino effect.
Netanyahu is expected to oppose a state commission of inquiry, fearing its political consequences, Channel 12 news reported Saturday.
The Times of Israel Community.