Yesterday was declared a day of mourning for the 45 victims but lowering flags and lighting candles are not enough. This was the country’s worst-ever civilian disaster.
By JPOST EDITORIALUltra-orthodox Jews light candles for the 45 victims who were killed in a stampede, at the scene of the fatal disaster, at Mt Meron. May 01, 2021.(photo credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)
The disaster during the Lag Ba’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron in the early hours of Friday morning will continue to haunt the country for years. Images of the rows of body bags, the children who suddenly lost a father, parents burying their children – all these are unforgettable scenes.Yesterday was declared a day of mourning for the 45 victims but lowering flags and lighting candles are not enough. This was the country’s worst-ever civilian disaster. It is particularly tragic for many reasons – the numbers of dead and wounded; the horrific nature of their deaths, many of asphyxiation in the stampede at the site, and the sudden switch from a joyous celebration to a scene of death and suffering. Above all, the tragedy is that this could have been prevented. The writing was on the mount, as one commentator put it.Every year, hundreds of thousands flock to the site. They range from traditional to ultra-Orthodox Jews. For many families, it is customary to cut the hair of three-year-old boys for the first time on Lag Ba’omer and Mount Meron is a favorite site for the ceremony.This is not the first year that warning signs were flashing. Warnings existed, in print, for more than a decade. Two State Comptroller’s Reports in the past, in 2008 and 2010, had pointed out the safety deficiencies at the site. The dangers were apparent to anybody who had visited the shrine of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai atop Meron, and not just in the crush of mass celebrations around bonfires. The infrastructure was not built for even tens of thousands of visitors at a time.Every year, people said that it was a miracle that the event passed safely. This year there was no miracle.The problems this year were particularly acute because large numbers of celebrants ascended to the site having missed the gathering last year due to COVID. In addition, the events this year were concentrated on one day rather than the usual two because of Shabbat.The Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Department (PID) swiftly began the probe from the Israel Police, since police officers themselves might be suspected of either criminal or administrative misconduct.Public Security Minister Amir Ohana issued an extraordinary statement on Saturday night saying: “I am responsible… but responsibility does not mean blame.”Part of the problem is that the event and site falls under the jurisdiction of seven ministries. This, surely, needs to be streamlined.As the full extent of the disaster became clear, the calls for a state investigation grew.
A state commission of inquiry – or a parliamentary committee of inquiry – is needed not to find who is to blame for the disaster but to establish exactly what happened, why and how, in order to prevent the recurrence of a similar catastrophe. The findings, incidentally, can be applied also to save lives at other mass events including sporting events and festivals.Sadly, as has happened before with events like the Arad Music Festival tragedy where three teens were crushed to death in 1995, there is no investigation until there has been a loss of life.As the Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon noted yesterday: “‘Don’t worry,’ goes the oft-repeated refrain if there are safety hazards in the street, or at construction sites, or at various nature reserves, ‘everything will be okay.’ One can imagine that this was the refrain heard in Meron, both by organizers before the tragedy and by celebrants at the site: ‘Sure, it seems dangerous, but everything will be okay, as it always has been in the past.’“But, heartbreakingly, everything wasn’t all right. And now a war needs to be waged against this ‘Take my word for it, everything will be fine’ mentality.”A state commission of inquiry has a broad mandate to investigate on a systemic level what happened to allow the Mount Meron tragedy to occur.Learning from the disaster is essential. Nothing can bring back those who died but the state does have to do everything to make sure – as much as is possible – that these senseless tragedies don’t happen again. That is why appointing a state commission of inquiry chaired by a Supreme Court justice is the only correct decision.
