The state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster publicized its conclusions on Wednesday, almost three years after the Meron disaster in which 45 people were killed and over 100 were injured.
The committee charged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with personal responsibility for the disaster: “Based on all the materials and evidence presented to us and our direct impression of them, our conclusion is that there is a reasonable basis for determining that Netanyahu knew that the Kever Rashbi site had been improperly managed for years and that this could create a risk for the crowds of visitors to the site, especially on Lag B’Omer. Even if, for the sake of caution, we assume that Netanyahu had no actual knowledge of the matter, under the circumstances he should have known it. The prime minister has the responsibility to proactively identify, on his own accord or via means on his behalf, issues that require the attention of his office and, if necessary, his intervention, especially regarding human lives. Surely this duty is required after the Carmel [fire] disaster and what was said about it in the State Comptroller’s report. In the circumstances described, the prime minister should have identified the need to take care of the Kever Rashbi site, as it was an issue of this type; if not from the beginning, certainly after the issue repeatedly arose in a way that clearly indicated that the problems related to it had not been resolved and continued to endanger human lives.”
“Since we came to the general conclusion that Netanyahu knew, or at the very least should have known, about the improper management of the Kever Rashbi site and the risks it posed to visitors to the site, he should have acted to correct things. The steps he took in this regard were unsatisfactory. This is especially so considering that he was aware that government decisions made in the matter were not implemented.”
However, the report did not make any recommendations on removing or limiting Netanyahu from his position now or in the future.
The committee recommended that Police Chief Kobi Shabtai terminate his position, but considering the current security, it recommended that the government determine the appropriate date for his termination.
The committee also held Shimon Lavi, commander of the Northern District of the Israel Police at the time of the disaster, personally responsible. The committee stated that Lavi accepted responsibility immediately after the incident and that he later resigned from his position. In doing so, the committee believed, Lavi acted as expected of a commander and according to the values of the police command. The committee noted that Lavi, as of June 30, 2023, no longer serves in the police. Considering the aforementioned, the committee decided to limit itself to determining the findings and conclusions as detailed in the report.
The committee also imposed personal responsibility for the disaster on then-public security minister Amir Ohana [Likud] and recommended that he not be appointed to the position of public security minister in the future, as well as placing personal responsibility on Rabbi Yaakov Avitan (Shas), the minister of religious services at the time of the disaster, and recommended that in light of the findings regarding his performance, he not be appointed to the position of minister in the Israeli government again.
The committee stated regarding the director of the National Center for the Development of the Holy Places in Israel, Yosef Schweinger: “The committee held Schweinger personally responsible and believed that the findings in his case are particularly serious. The committee recommended that Schweinger immediately end his tenure as director of the National Center for the Development of the Holy Places and that he not be employed in any position related to Lag B’Omer or the Meron complex.”
The committee stated regarding Rav Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Rav of the Holy Places: “Taking into account the totality of the circumstances in which he acted, and the actions that Rav Rabinovitch took to improve the situation… the committee decided not to impose personal responsibility on Rav Rabinovitch.”
The members of the committee wrote: “The Meron disaster could and should have been prevented. The writing was on the wall long before the disaster happened – in very large and clear letters, but they remained there without any response. The possible dire result was also known. As in a Greek tragedy, the end was known in advance. It was unknown when it would happen, on whose watch, or in which part of the site. It was impossible to know what price would be exacted, how many people would pay with their lives and health, and how many families would be left broken – but it was clear that the disaster would come.”
“The writing that was on the wall had been known to many for many years. This disaster could have been prevented, and it was our duty to prevent it.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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14 Responses
and what about recommendations for future events? that regulations should be enacted to require large public gatherings have to have risk assessments, appropriate plans how to react to fires, crowding, etc, certificates of safety for all structures? if this just about who was and wasn’t responsible then it was a wasted opportunity.
if it was recommendations about improving public safety at big events then please YWN ikur choser min hasefer, don’t report just clickbait about personalities but publicise practical measures that the report might have recommended.
Just wondering – why is it that now, there is a push within the Chareidi community to follow Derech haTeva and exercise Hishtadlus to protect lives by preventing a tragedy like this happening again, but the Chareidi community is unwilling to follow Derech haTeva and exercise Hishtadlus with respect to protecting themselves and their fellow Jews being attacked and slaughtered by external enemies?
A point to ponder…
an Israeli Yid
It’s very sad, because these people that were Nifter, never even knew that there is no real M’kor that the Tanah Reb Shimon was ever involved in Kabalah. And neither is there a M’kor that his Yartzeit is on Lag B’omer.
@anIsraeliYid: the 1st Derech Hateva is: TO LISTEN AND FOLLOW OUR GEDOLIM! GOING AGAINST THEM WILL ONLY BRING DISASTER “BDERECH HATEVA”
2. The Israeli army have yet to prove their effectiveness b’derech hateva – 5 months in Gaza and nothing achieved!
A tragedy of such proportions demanded a thorough inquiry and study how to implement safeguards. Unfortunately, this was a horrendously graphic rendition of what can Rachmana Litzlan happen. And as a result, organizers and participants are much more cautious at events. Pity that so many are pointing fingers of personal blame rather than just taking heed for the future.
Ader, yes, because you’re smart and everyone else is dumb. Please, stop being so naive. Look into the matter properly and you will find plenty of mekoros.
To: searchin345 It’s not respectful to a Tanah to make up things about him. Moses de Leon should never have spread the rumor that Reb Shimon was the author of the Zohar.
Reb Shimon was one of our many great Tano’im like many other Tano’im.
@DavidtehKanoi – You may feel that listening to Gedolim is your hishtadlus and is enough, and that is a position that many in the Chareidi community take. Unfortunately, this does not always work out – in Meron, there were many, many Chasidishe Rebbes who encouraged their followers and other Jews to go to Meron because the zechus of Rav Shimon bar Yocha’i would protect all who came to celebrate his Yahrtzeit, and we see what happened. To those with a certain level of Emunas Chachamim, this result proves nothing – since HKB”H obviously wanted this to happen, he had those Gedolim encourage their followers to go, and as we can’t understand HKB”H’s reasons, we can’t ask why. This begs the question, though, why any of the safety improvements are necessary, and why anyone is to blame…
As to the effectiveness of the Israeli army in Gaza – your statement that “5 months in Gaza and nothing achieved” is demonstrably false. I don’t know where you live, but here in Israel, the number of rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel has been nearly eliminated, and there are thousands of Hamas fighters killed – something I’d say is quite the achievement. You are entitled to your opinion on the value of Hishtadlus or any other matter you wish – but you are not entitled to your own facts.
an Israeli Yid
@ader,
your total ignorance and display of being a kofer definitely does have a mekor.
Shame on you YWN that you allow such missionaries masquerading as Jews to comment on your platform!!
@ader
It’s not even Purim yet, and you are already in a state of “ahd d’loi yodah”….
Get it straight, many Gedoilei Achronim clearly claimed that Reb Shimon had no שייכות to the Zohar. The יעבץ brings many solid proofs from the writings of the Zohar that the Zohar was written more than a thousand years after Reb Shimon.
An Israeli Yid, nobody says there should not be an army. If there were no army we would have to establish one, and some people would have to serve in it. Likewise if there were no fire brigade or police force or hospitals we would have to establish those and some people would have to serve in them.
But it is unnecessary and undesirable for everyone to be a fireman or a policeman or a doctor, and it is unnecessary and undesirable for everyone to be in the army. The halacha is that meshorer sheshi’er chayav misah! Each person must do his duty in the place where he is most suited and needed, and where hashgacha has assigned him.
The country’s defense needs soldiers but it also needs bnei torah. The gemara says that it is forbidden to conscript bnei torah into the army or for any other kind of work, no matter how necessary that work is, because their work is more important than any other. The defense of the country does NOT come from the soldiers but from the learners, and a learner who decides to become a soldier is abandoning his post and belongs in the brig.
If the state would take this seriously, and assign people to learn as well as to defend, in equal numbers, then we could say that those who are assigned to serve with a gun instead of a gemara must obey that order. But when you have a regime that assigns everyone to the tanks and no one to the infantry, or everyone to the infantry and no one to the tanks, or refuses to assign people to the kitchens or the mechanics or the medics, then that is reckless and we must resist such an authority and do what is needed.
Ader, not believing in the Zohar is apikorsus, exactly like not believing in the Gemara. Someone who rejects the Zohar is pasul le’eidus. It was not written by Ribbi Moshe de Leon; he merely found it, put it into some kind of order, and published it.
The text is very corrupt, having passed through so many copyists for over a thousand years, without the scrutiny of thousands of eyes to find and fix all the errors; just as the masechtos that are not learned as often are full of errors, and so is the Yerushalmi, for the same reason. Over the years people’s marginal comments were mistakenly incorporated into the text. The papers that RMdL found were not bound, so they weren’t in any particular order, except where the top of one page clearly continued from the bottom of another. But the essence of it is from RShBY, exactly as it says it is. When it says Kam Ribbi Shimon Ve’amar, it is telling the literal truth. And when it says that at Ribbi Shimon’s passing he said it was his wedding day and commanded that it be celebrated, that is what happened. So when the Pri Etz Chaim says that Lag Ba’omer is “yom simchas RShBY”, it means his yortzeit.
Get it straight, many Gedoilei Achronim clearly claimed that Reb Shimon had no שייכות to the Zohar.
The people you are referring to were not Gedoilei hoAcharonim, and were not even Ketanei hoAcharoinim. They were Maskilim, yimach shemom. R Yacov Emden agreed that the Zohar was basically from RShBY; all he wrote was that not every word was directly from him. Which should be obvious just from the fact that it refers to him in the third person. But there are also things in the Zohar that must have been later additions, probably someone’s notes that were mistakenly incorporated into the text. We see the same thing with the printed Rashi on the chumash; sometimes it’s clear that we are reading someone’s comment on the Rashi, not Rashi’s own words.