Ultra-Orthodox parties: We’ll learn lessons of inquiry into deadly 2021 Meron crush
Shas minister pans PM’s Likud party for painting commission’s work as politically motivated, demands retraction; Likud minister Barkat urges Netanyahu to take responsibility
Hours after a state commission of inquiry published its findings on the 2021 Meron disaster, in which 45 people were killed by a crush during a religious festival, ultra-Orthodox parties acknowledged the conclusions and said they would learn the necessary lessons to prevent a similar tragedy from ever happening again.
Coalition members United Torah Judaism and Shas issued nearly identical statements on the inquiry Wednesday.
UTJ leader Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf said: “Our job is to learn lessons and do everything we possibly can to rectify and ensure that a disaster like this doesn’t happen.”
Echoing Goldknopf, the Shas party said it was its “duty to study the conclusions and draw lessons so that such a serious incident does not happen again.”
The responses from UTJ and Shas came as criticism mounted — including from within the government coalition — against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which had quickly dismissed the inquiry findings as a “political weapon” used against Netanyahu by his opponents.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas demanded that Likud retract the “shameful statement” made earlier, in which it derided the inquiry.
“I call on the Likud spokesman to withdraw his shameful response to the commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster and its findings,” Arbel said. “We must all respect the dead and their families and guarantee that we will do everything to implement the committee’s findings in full to save human lives.”
There was also criticism from Economy Minister Nir Barkat, who is seen as a potential future rival to Netanyahu as leader of the Likud party.
“Responsible leadership must take responsibility in order to learn lessons and prevent future failures,” Barkat said. “It is a grave mistake to turn the commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster into a political issue.”
Likud MK Eli Dallal also appeared to criticize his own party, writing on X that “if there is nothing good/smart/or leaderly to say, it’s better not to say anything!”
Religious Zionism MK Tzvi Sukkot added his voice to the growing condemnation coming from within the government.
“As someone who has visited [Meron] for decades, unfortunately, I can say that overcrowding and overlapping were the defining symbol of Mount Meron on Lag Ba’omer,” the ultranationalist MK wrote on X, describing “desperate disorder, together with urgency and chaos on narrow slippery stairs” as being the norm at the hilltop gravesite.
“The attempt to define the findings of the commission of inquiry as political is sad, infuriating, and disrespectful to the dozens of victims,” he added.
The commission named Netanyahu among the officials personally responsible for the 2021 Meron disaster, in which 45 men and boys were trampled to death during a pilgrimage at the grave of a revered second-century rabbi.
The committee did not propose sanctions against Netanyahu but did offer a scathing assessment of the premier, saying it was reasonable to assume that he knew the Mount Meron site was dangerous after warnings by multiple official bodies over the years.
In its statement responding to the findings of the panel, Likud rejected the commission of inquiry’s mandate, given that it was established by his political rivals — former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid — and was tasked with probing an event that didn’t take place during their tenure.
The Likud statement on Wednesday stood in stark contrast to a statement issued by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who served as public security minister at the time of the disaster and was also listed as one of those bearing personal responsibility by the commission. “I am responsible,” Ohana said in 2021, and again on Wednesday.
Police chief Kobi Shabtai also accepted the report’s findings, which named him among those personally responsible for the deadly 2021 crush, saying that he is ready to step down once the government decides he should.
At the time of the tragedy, COVID-19 pandemic rules limited outdoor gatherings to just 100 people, which meant the Lag B’Omer event at Mount Meron required special government-approved regulations to allow larger attendance.
Multiple media reports have said that Netanyahu, the prime minister at the time, was under pressure from ultra-Orthodox political allies to approve the event without limits on attendance, despite long-standing police concerns over crowding safety. He met with ultra-Orthodox lawmakers ahead of the event and agreed to remove all restrictions at the site in exchange for the Haredi parties’ support for selected legislation.
Mount Meron, the site of the grave of second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, is traditionally visited by thousands of ultra-Orthodox worshipers on the anniversary of his death during the holiday of Lag B’Omer, several weeks after Passover.
Forty-five men and boys were killed on April 30, 2021, after 100,000 worshipers, mostly members of the ultra-Orthodox community, crowded into the site despite longstanding warnings about the safety of the complex.
