The members of the state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster slammed the head of the Meron HaGalil Regional Council during his testimony last week for failing to fulfill his responsibilities regarding the Meron site.
Council Head Amit Sofer told the commission that although the Meron site is officially part of his jurisdiction, it is “an extra-territorial zone,” referring to the fact that so many interested parties were involved in the happenings at the site
Sofer claimed that other bodies such as Va’adas HaChamisha, the “Committee of Five,” which is in charge of the Kever Shimon Bar Yochai complex, and the National Authority of Construction Law Enforcement, are responsible for the Meron site.
“The number of visitors there throughout the year and on Lag B’Omer is two million people,” he said. “We deal with the consequences of that but as far as the municipality is concerned, the State is the one that manages the site. Everyone understands that it’s a national site and that’s how it must be managed. From a municipal standpoint, I don’t do anything there. They provide the budget and take care of it as an extra-territorial site in itself, including garbage disposal, electricity, sewage, and water. It is an entire system that is managed in itself.”
However, Sofer’s claims did not find favor with state commission member Maj.-Gen. (res.) Shlomo Yanai, who asked him: “Did someone once tell you: ‘Don’t enforce illegal construction there?’ Did you receive some type of document that stated: ‘Head of the Merom HaGalil Regional Council – beginning tomorrow, the Meron site is considered an extra-territorial zone?'” Sofer responded in the negative.
“‘To maintain order, proper governance and safety, to enforce violations and restrictions in order to ensure public health, order and safety.’ Yanai recited. “This is your obligation according to the law. Why didn’t you fulfill this at Meron? As far as you’re concerned, you can go on vacation before Lag B’Omer?”
The head of the commission, former Supreme Court President Miriam Naor, also slammed Sofer, saying: “Do you agree that in every other location [in the municipality] your job is to enforce building violations or illegal construction but you failed to do that at Meron?”
ועדת נאור | ראש המועצה האזורית מרום הגליל עמית סופר: "מבחינת המועצה, מתחם קבר הרשב"י הוא אקס-טריטוריאלי. אני לא עושה שם כלום, זה כמו טריטוריה בפני עצמה". יו"ר הוועדה מרים נאור ציינה במהלך דבריו: "מצידך שהיו לוקחים את מירון למקום אחר", ושאלה: "יש לך אנטיפתיה למירון?"@amotzsh pic.twitter.com/5Q3Chqeviu
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 5, 2021
Sofer said: “I can’t point toward a certain time or event but the perception was that [other State bodies] took care of Meron. Years ago, I turned to the State Attorney in order to be involved. They told me that the decision of the Supreme Court was that the Commission of Five manages the site. According to my understanding, this applied to municipal issues as well.”
Sofer also claimed that even authorized bodies erected illegal buildings at the site. “The State built there and we should come and destroy it?” he said. “There’s an illegal police station there and a building of the Mekomos Hakedoshim. What did they expect from me? That I should evacuate it?”
Sofer also mentioned that a municipal supervisor once called the National Authority of Construction Law Enforcement regarding illegal construction at Meron and was told: “Don’t touch it. We’ll take care of it.”
Sofer offered a similar claim regarding business licensing at the site: “It was clear that the licensing laws didn’t apply there, that it’s a spontaneous religious event and therefore no licenses were needed. I don’t remember who said it. I never signed business licenses all these years and no one approached me to sign for them either.”
Sofer added that the first time that he received a report of the safety issues at the Meron site was after the disaster.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
So again, the municipal head cries “its not my responsibility”. Someone else was responsible. Virtually identical testimony from the local police, the national police, the public works ministry, the Toldos Aron rav managing their hadlakah, etc. etc. It must be very reassuring to the families of the 45 niftarim to know that no one was responsible. It just happened with no one admitting to a mistake, even in retrospect.
@Gadolhadorah — More civilly this time: The only people (for lack of a better word) responsible for the Merton tragedy are the sick, sick Israeli police, yemach shemam vezichram. I hope heilege askanim from Toldos Aharon and municipal whatever this guy is and everyone else alike… all manage to come out unscathed — maybe the sick, sick Israeli police, yemach etc., will finally be forced to take responsibility for at least THIS murder.
I can’t exonerate the council head but as a frequent visitor to Meron until several years ago, I well remember seeing leaflets from charedi elements who asserted their control of the site in opposition to “Zionist” institutions who intended (what else?) to “uproot the religion,” and hearing laments from one of the property owners about powerful operatives “from Bnei Brak” (as they put it) who dictated who would rent their property and under what terms. I also remember being elbowed out of the tsiyyun by shoulder-to-shoulder throngs of visitors (not that they were overtly hostile; they were just a quaking mass of people) and resorting to the moshav’s shul for davening — only to find defaced siddurim (guess which page was torn out, and by whom) and leaflets advising women (or really, advising husbands to order their wives) to wear veils. My feeling about Meron long before the disaster was: You break it, you take it.
NAFTUSH 2 is exactly right. Sorry to say, but whoever came there and brought their children has done it to themselves. I don’t know what meiron was back in the day, but in recent years, it was a pagan fest, full of extremism and not Jewish spirit. You need to call a spade a spade. It often happens that people become too excited over something kadosh, but then they start worshipping the ritual itself rather then using it as a way to serve Hashem. This Is why nachash nechoshes had to be destroyed, and why we do not know the place of Moshe Rabeinu’s grave. All balance is gone. People start to sacrifice everything, including their children to the ritual. This is the perfect example. Even if the police were the catalyst for the disaster, it was always a very dangerous place, definitely not a place people should bring children to in the middle of the night. This is not Judaism, this is against our basic principles.
The Meron tragedy had been foretold for many years by many people who repeatedly warned of the increasingly dangerous conditions there. Many people and organizations could and should have taken action throughout the years but none did, and so the Meron tragedy has many fathers, though all are denying their portion of the responsibility. I hope that the commission looks beyond the events of the year of the tragedy and diagnoses the root issue(s) that caused so many otherwise responsible people and organizations to consistently fail to take action on this particular issue for so many years.