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May. 6, 2021 3:40 PM
The engineer who had certified safety at Mount Meron, where 45 people were killed in a stampede last week, warned that the site s emergency exit had been narrowed, creating the risk of “a bottleneck,” according to documents disclosed Tuesday by Channel 12 News.
“In light of the size of the crowd expected, all of the emergency exits must remain open,” the engineer stated in a document that he issued three days prior to the massive Lag Ba’omer event.
He said the emergency exit was narrowed by the placement of a moveable structure and the construction of a balcony.
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May. 6, 2021
The Mount Meron passageway where 45 people were crushed to death last week was illegally built some 20 years ago by the ultra-Orthodox Toldos Aharon sect so that men would be able to enter the compound without coming into contact with women. No government entity acted to stop it.
The Meron disaster occurred as people left the Lag Ba’omer bonfire lighting ceremony conducted by the insular anti-Zionist sect. Toldos Aharon has known for years that the passageway was too narrow and crowded to accommodate crowds of the magnitude that have been coming to Mount Meron on Lag Ba’omer. In the past, they closed it off during the lighting ceremony itself to avoid problems, but on the night of the disaster, access was permitted without limitation.
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Nevertheless, he added, they will also continue probing the incident on separate tracks, “to preserve the independence of each agency’s investigation and its ability to uncover the truth in optimal fashion.” Moreover, only Justice Ministry investigators will question police officers, so the police won’t be involved in the decision on whether any of the officers should be considered a suspect.
The prosecution will oversee the joint investigative team and rule on any disputes that arise between the agencies. Mendelblit’s statement noted that the heads of both the police’s investigations and intelligence department and the Justice Ministry department had termed the probe “very complicated” due to the multiplicity of governmental, public and private bodies involved in the disaster.
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Faced with heartbreaking devastation, even the toughest seasoned first responders found themselves working on autopilot and then broke down
Photos: Flash 90
There’s something almost mythical about the heroes in the orange vests – maybe it’s in part because of those inspiring tribute songs with the sirens in the background always there at the worst tragedies, doing everything humanly possible to save lives, and then going back to whatever they do until the next tragedy, accident, or terror attack. There is a certain security in their presence, a knowledge that if the men in the orange vests are there, everything will be all right.
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There are currently no plans to investigate anyone as a suspect in the deaths of the 45 worshipers who were crushed to death on a stairwell near the site of a bonfire run by the Toldos Aharon Hasidic sect. Bonfires on Mount Meron, where the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is located, are a traditional way of celebrating the Lag Ba’omer holiday.
Nevertheless, officials from the police, the Religious Services Ministry and the National Center for the Development of Holy Places – the agency that runs Mount Meron – have all consulted criminal defense attorneys in recent days.