TEL AVIV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2021) Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman on Monday announced the launch of a special investigation into the deadly stampede at a religious festival on Mount Meron.
A mass stampede took place during last week's Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer on the mountain, resulting in the deaths of 45 people and 150 injured.
"We will look into actions of all sides, from those who called the shots to the behavior of employees, [and] the law enforcement's performance in the emergency," Englman said in a statement, according to the Israeli broadcaster Reshet 13, adding that the tragedy could have been prevented.
The official added that his office detected safety issues on the Mount Meron 10 years ago, but nothing had been done to fix these problems.
"Back in 2008, the State Comptroller published a statement on the state of [the second-century sage Rabbi] Shimon bar Yochai's grave on Mount Meron and on the process of organizing Lag B'Omer events. In 2011, the department conducted a second inspection. These reports indicated a number of defects, and if they had been eliminated, the catastrophe could have been prevented," the official said, as cited by his press service.
Among other things, the inspection indicated that there was no government agency responsible for the general supervision of the tomb and for organizing the event.
"In addition, we identified such defects as poor maintenance, illegal building extensions, inadequate road infrastructure and inappropriate access roads � especially for rescue vehicles at events with many participants," Englman noted.
The celebration on Mount Meron was Israel's first mass event after lifting the COVID-19 restrictions, and it was attended by approximately 100,000 participants. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the tragedy one of the worst disasters in the country's history.
Lag B'Omer is celebrated to honor the end of a plague that took the lives of several thousand disciples of Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef, a Jewish religious scholar said to have lived between the first and second centuries. Mount Meron is the resting place of one of his disciples, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
