Netanyahu vows Meron incident will be probed, but not yet
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz told his faction that Meretz would demand a commission of inquiry and not let Netanyahu get away without taking blame.
By GIL HOFFMANUpdated: MAY 3, 2021 21:30Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen addressing the Knesset on May 3, 2021.(photo credit: DANI SHEM TOV/KNESSET SPOKESPERSONS OFFICE)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Monday to ensure that there would be a proper investigation of the Meron disaster, but he asked for patience.“We have a fundamental obligation to check every aspect of the Meron disaster,” he said at a special session of the Knesset about the tragedy. “When the mourning period ends, we will check in an organized and responsible manner all the factors related to the mountain, in the present and past.”Netanyahu said he would check the procedures for entering and leaving the Meron site, security issues, the role of the police, engineering changes needed for the mountain and taking governmental control of the site.“We will learn all the lessons for the future so such a disaster will not repeat itself,” he said.Defense Minister Benny Gantz mocked Public Security Minister Amir Ohana at the Knesset session for saying that he would take responsibility but not blame.“The role of a probe is not necessarily only to find who is to blame but to express our obligation to learn lessons from this incident and others like it,” Gantz said. “This is a national obligation and an ethical injunction from the victims, whose deaths will not be for naught. We need to change this national disaster from a breaking point to a turning point toward change.”Ohana told the plenum that he had been meeting all week with families of victims and that what the families care about is unity among the people of Israel and not assessing blame.There were 89 MKs who signed up to speak at the special session of the Knesset.Earlier Monday, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid told his Knesset faction that Netanyahu must leave office because of the disaster at Meron.“Ben-Gurion Airport should not have been left open, and Meron shouldn’t have been left open,” Lapid said.
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz told his faction that Meretz would demand a commission of inquiry and not let Netanyahu get away without taking blame. Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman told his faction that United Torah Judaism leaders Moshe Gafni and Ya’acov Litzman and Shas leader Arye Deri must resign due to their behavior ahead of the Meron disaster.The Religious Zionist Party submitted an urgent proposition to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the causes of the disaster at Mount Meron, saying that the current political situation does not allow the formation of an investigative committee according to the investigative committee law.
