Seventy-five percent of the Israeli public thinks there should be a state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster, including 62% of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, according to a new poll.
The government, including the haredi parties, has resisted efforts to establish a state commission of inquiry into the disaster, which claimed the lives of 45 people, despite the support of the families of the victims for such an investigation.
The new survey, conducted by the Smith Consulting research group for Israel Be Free religious freedom organization, polled 600 Jews last week and asked if they were for or against a state commission of inquiry into the Meron tragedy that would be headed by a judge.
Seventy-five percent said they were in favor of such a commission, compared with 8.5% who said they were against, with 16.5% saying they had no opinion.
When examining the level of religiosity of respondents, the polls showed that 63% of those who defined themselves as haredi were in favor of a state commission, while 15% were opposed, and 22% had no opinion.
Some 60% of those who voted for the haredi Shas Party said they were in favor of such an inquiry, as did 59% of the haredi United Torah Judaism Party, 69% of Religious Zionist Party voters and 68% of Likud voters.
The poll also asked if the law exempting mass religious events, such as the Lag Ba’omer celebrations at Meron, from having to comply with safety regulations should be repealed.
Some 89% of respondents, including 85% of those identifying as haredi, said this law should be changed and that mass religious events be subject to the same regulations as any other event.
On April 30, 45 men and boys died during a mass crush during the Lag Ba’omer celebrations at Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s Tomb on Mount Meron in the Upper Galilee. It was Israel’s deadliest civilian disaster.
The entire Israeli public “understands that a minority of politicians with concealed interests still [do] not understand that safety demands as part of religious events are the way to preserve the life of the participants,” Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel) director Uri Keidar said.
“The time has come to end this abandonment and demand that the law [for safety regulations] applies equally to all events,” he said.
Israel Hofsheet is a grassroots movement that is active “in the realm of freedom of marriage, segregation of women, LGBT rights and other local struggles against religious coercion and towards pluralism.”
State commissions of inquiry are headed by a judge who appoints the other members of the panel and are independent of all governmental influence from the moment they are appointed.
Last week, a bill was brought to the Knesset Arrangements Committee, which voted to expedite the legislative process. Shas and UTJ MKs voted against it.
Shas and UTJ have sought to establish a “public committee of inquiry” that would include representatives from several government ministries, including those likely to come under scrutiny by an investigation.
The public committee would be chaired by a representative to be chosen by Interior Minister Arye Deri, the Shas chairman, whose involvement in arrangements at Meron is likely to come under examination.
According to a spokesman for the Forum of Families of the Meron Disaster Victims, the majority of the families are in favor of a formal committee of inquiry on the condition that it be totally independent of political influences and that it be totally independent of political influence.
“From what the families have seen,” the only type of investigation that would be free of political interference and would be able to prevent another such disaster would be a state commission of inquiry, said the spokesman, a brother of one of the victims.
The families would be open to some other format on the condition that the investigation would be completely independent of political and governmental influence, he said.