![]() In 2011, the state declared it would take control over the site, but control was returned to owners in a court-approved settlement in 2020. A 2016 police report warned of issues with infrastructure and crowd control. Safety warnings Ī 2008 evaluation of the site by the State Comptroller of Israel concluded that it is not adequate for its number of annual visitors. ![]() About 100 people fell from a height of roughly 25 feet (8 m) to the ground below the deaths of seven were determined at the scene and those of four others in the days following the incident. On, eleven people were killed when a crowd of about 10,000 filled the compound and a railing of a nearby balcony collapsed. The crush was not the first time pilgrims at Mount Meron had been killed in an accident. Israeli media reported that, as a precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic, bonfire areas had been partitioned off, which may have created unrecognised choke-points. The organisers estimated that approximately 100,000 were at the site-others estimate 50,000 -which was larger than the restricted crowd in 2020 but smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people in previous years. Three bonfires were lit at the same time, each by an Admor. Moreover, since celebrations are not permitted on Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath, which starts at sunset every Friday, the event was limited to a window of 14 hours, ending at sunset on Friday. Īdditionally, for the first time in 13 years, the Mount Meron holiday took place on a Thursday and Friday, the significance being that Thursday night is seen as comparable to Saturday night in other parts of the world, with Friday being Israel's day of rest, as opposed to Sunday. The event was the largest to be held in Israel since the start of the pandemic in 2020. The Cabinet of Israel permitted the 2021 pilgrimage and waived the COVID-19 cap of 1,000 attendees as part of an agreement with Ministry of Religious Services officials which required attendees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In 2020, the country restricted the pilgrimage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Haaretz called it Israel's "biggest religious festival of the year". Men and boys attend in sections different from those for women and girls. On the Lag BaOmer holiday, the tomb of the 2nd-century Tannaitic rabbi Shimon bar Yochai at Mount Meron becomes a pilgrimage site for thousands of Jews, where they pray, dance and make bonfires. In Israel, such a commission of inquiry has the powers to subpoena witnesses and issue recommendations to the government.įurther information: Hillula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai Many traditional Lag BaOmer events took place at the festival, such as dancing and lighting bonfires, preceding the crush. On 27 June, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, Esther Hayut, announced that a three-paneled state commission of inquiry would be chaired by her predecessor, former Supreme Court Chief Miriam Naor, with the other two members consisting of former Bnei Brak mayor Rabbi Mordechai Karlitz and Aluf (ret.) Shlomo Yanai. Investigators said that senior police officers should be questioned, as suspects rather than witnesses. On, police arrested the safety engineer who approved the Lag BaOmer celebration and his assistant. It was later pointed out that the bonfires were not all lit at the same time, as in the past this allowed people who had seen one lighting go to see another, increasing crowds. Reuters cited Israeli media outlets in reporting that, as a precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, bonfire areas had been partitioned off, which may have created unrecognised choke-points. The local council had tried several times to close the site. The potential for such a calamity, given the tens of thousands of celebrants, had been reported by the state comptroller and the police chief. The people further down were trampled over, crushed, and asphyxiated by compression, calling out that they could not breathe. Those behind, unaware of the blockage ahead, continued. Witnesses say that people tripped and slipped near the top of the stairs. ![]() The crush occurred after celebrants poured out of one section of the mountainside compound, down a passageway with a sloping metal floor wet with spilled drinks, leading to a staircase continuing down. Forty-five men and boys at the event were killed, and about 150 were injured, dozens of them critically, making it the deadliest civil disaster in the history of the State of Israel. On 30 April 2021, at about 00:45 IDT ( UTC+3), a deadly crowd crush occurred on Mount Meron, Israel, during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer, at which it was estimated that 100,000 people were in attendance. Under investigation includes over-crowding in Lag BaOmer celebration
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