Virtually every Lag B'Omer in Israel, there is a predominantly Haredi celebration in Northern Israel, in a place called, Meron. Meron is one of those places in Israel you can say is "out-of-the-way". On a good day, it will take one somewhere between 2.5 and 3+ hours to drive North from Jerusalem to get to Meron.
Meron is closer to Lebanon than it is to Jerusalem. It is located northwest of the city of Tzfat (Safed), in what is called the upper Galilee.
Meron is a small town. It's high in the hills. The actual site of the Meron celebrations is a stand-alone stadium complex not easily accessible in the best of times. When a hundred thousand+ gather there once a year, I would think the place would be chaotic.
At least, that was my impression when I visited the site several years ago--but not during the Lag B'Omer celebration. In fact, I was surprised by how small the site was. My own feeling at the time about the place back then was that people coming here to celebrate on Lag B'Omer would be pressed together like sardines.
Perhaps there's been some construction at this Meron site since my visit there. Perhaps there have been improvements both to access points and the site itself. But from what I have read about this tragedy, I suspect such improvements have not been made.
People travel to Meron to celebrate both the Lag B'Omer day, and to visit the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a Jewish sage from the late first century-early second century CE. He is considered by many to be the author of the Zohar, the great--and original--work of the Jewish Kabbalah (mysticism). He may well have been a disciple of the great Rabbi Akiva.
Here is a brief video that shows what was going on at the Meron site allegedly just before the tragic incident that followed. You can see in this video how thousands of men and boys cram together while swaying, dancing and singing the ani ma'amin (a profession of faith in the Jewish Moshiach):
On Lag B'Omer, 2021 ( April 30, 2021), something happened while huge crowds estimated by some to be as high as 300,000 were there. Media around the world have locked onto the word "stampede" to describe the Meron incident, during which 45 men and boys were trampled or crushed to death, and another 150 injured. I have heard this incident called Israel's greatest single one-day civilian tragedy.
This use of the word 'stampede' has been used as the way to characterize this incident. But I'm not sure that is fully accurate. You see, there are reports surfacing that suggest the deaths at Meron were not caused by a 'stampede', but by bad judgment by the police.
Much is still not known about what happened at Meron. But to my mind, there were several major problems at Meron on Lag B'Omer. First, there were too many people admitted to the site. Only buses were allowed to the site thatg da y--but buses should have been stopped miles before Meron, to keep the 'overcrowds' away.
Second, police should have publicized for all, in advance, that only a specified number of people would be admitted. Perhaps the number should have been described as "the first 30,000".
Third, additional alternate sites near Meron should have been developed to accomodate crowd overflow--and their celebrations.
Fourth, the police barricaded entry-points to the 'chute' passageway you saw in the second video, above. Why did the police do that? No one yet knows.
When I visited Meron, there were very few people present. I had arrived at the 'off-season'. This slopped passageway offered no difficulties. But it is easy to imagine thousands of people being funneled into this passage. Imagine 10,000 or 20,000 (or more) people being funneled into it. What then?
Imagine 10,000 people being funneled into this chute, as their ability to enter the passageway was suddenly partially blocked by the police. What do you think could happen then?
At the time I saw this passageway, I cringed. It suggested an adventure that did not attract me.
Reports differ about what, exactly, the police did with barricades that night. One report had it that police had, essentially, somehow blocked the chute (either partially or completely) as people continued to push forward towards that chute, not realizing that the chute located ahead of them had been allegedly plugged.
What was disturbing about these reports was that this "plug" appeared to have been caused by a deliberate police decision to hold back the crowd. No explanation has been forthcoming as to why the police had done that. On the face of it, such a plug in the face of tens of thousands of pushing people portends trouble, if not disaster.
Why did the police do that? Did they do that? We don't yet know.
As Jerusalem's Deputy Mayor Yossi Daitch (reported to have been there) described the situation, "A policeman saw the crowd [was plugged up] but instead of opening an escape path for people, he threatened them with pepper spray" (here). When police finally 'released' the crowd, everyone simply fell over each other.
Is that a 'stampede'? A 'stampede' suggests a panic. Where in this eyewitness account was the panic? It's an important question because this is, presumably, when the deaths occurred--as the police 'released' their 'plug', and people "just fell over one another".
Was any of this account true? I have no idea. Was this tragedy caused by the police? We don't know--but the police aren't helping. They have reportedly forbidden all investigators from speaking to police officiers who had been present at the scene.
Was this report true? No one knows.
Since this tragedy, different narratives have appeared, few of them helpful. For example, one report said police had "warned" beforehand of the potential for this type of disaster at Meron (here). But another report suggested that, before the Meron tragedy, police were briefed as to the potential for it (here). Still another report said that engineering data showed that a section of the "buildlng" that had collapsed in Meron (what building had collapsed?) was built to hold 3,000 people. On the night of the disaster, it was holding 20,000 (here).
Where were the police? Weren't they there to prevent such dangerous overcrowding?
Another report has surfaced that Israel's police and security bureaucracies were teaming up to blame Israel's Supreme Court for this disaster (here). Then, a prominent Israeli Rabbi--head of Jerusalem's Rabbinical Court, no less--came out with a statement that the bonfires at Meron (apparently a key attraction of these Meron celebrations) are not only a deviation from "known Lag B'Omer customs", but are a "tumult" that never used to be.
This is a true statement. But not exactly true.
That is, I think this statement is true for some groups of Jews. But not true for others. This Rabbi then added, "the sages of the world opposed it" (here). Again, he's right--for some groups of Jews. But not all.
Finallly, we saw this week one "creative" Leftist politician attempt to push Meron into Israel's current election mess surrounding Israel's current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This Leftist politician politicized the tragedy by blaming "corruption" in Netanyahu's office for the deaths (here).
This Meron tragedy has not ended. We will no doubt see a lot more about this incident in the weeks--and months--ahead. We should pray that some good should come from this tragedy.
Stay tuned.
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