A government-appointed state commission of inquiry rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims of lacking knowledge about the potential for disaster at a religious festival and held him responsible for the deadly 2021 stampede in Mount Meron.
Forty-five men and boys died, and 150 others suffered injuries, on April 30, 2021, when hundreds of pilgrims were caught in a stampede trying to exit the site of celebrations for the Jewish festival of Lag B’Omer in Mount Meron, in northern Israel.
Tens of thousands had gathered for the occasion, but the exit ramp from the open-air complex was too narrow and poorly constructed. In the crush to leave, some of the pilgrims fell, setting off a mass panic. No police or other security officers were on duty at the exit to manage crowd safety. The commission ruled that Netanyahu holds ultimate responsibility for the disaster.
On Wednesday, the commission established in June 2021 published its conclusions, which includes a long list of failures related to maintenance of the site and to management of the festival and security. It noted that reports had for years called attention to the hazardous situation at the site, where according to Jewish tradition the grand sage Rashbi is buried. The reports warned that the makeshift site was inadequately built and maintained for hosting the tens of thousands of pilgrims who attend the yearly festival.
