On Sunday, June 4, tens of thousands of people will gather along Fifth Avenue to march in solidarity with Israel, and join together at the Celebrate Israel Parade to support the Jewish state.
Caught in tug of war between authorities, religious sects and interest groups, Israel's 2nd most-visited Jewish holy place has no full, official state oversight
Former police chiefs Moshe Karadi (right) and Shlomo Aharonishki. (Yossi Zamir / Flash90)
Former police commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki joins calls for a state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster. Another ex-commissioner, Moshe Karadi, issued the same demand on Friday night.
Speaking on Channel 12 news, Aharonishki, who helmed the force from 2001-4, reinforces characterizations of the Mt. Meron facility around the burial site of the 2nd Century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai as a kind of extraterritorial facility where ultra-Orthodox organizers have ultimate control.
“The police are not in charge of safety” at Meron, Aharonishki says, speaking in the wake of the disaster overnight Thursday-Friday in which 45 people were crushed to death in a packed, narrow, sloping walkway, with a slippery metal floor, along the exit route from the site during Lag B’Omer festivities.