The blue and white flags set with the Star of David were at half mast in Israel on Sunday, May 2. The country has declared a day of national mourning following the deaths of 45 people, including children, in an early Friday morning stampede at Mont Méron in the north of the country.
Israeli authorities announced on Sunday that the identification of the bodies had been completed. Among the victims are two young Franco-Israeli brothers, police and diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday. Moshe and Yosef ElHadad were aged 12 and 18, respectively. Four Americans and two Canadians also died in the stampede. Most of the victims are from Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, cities where the country’s main Orthodox communities are located.
Tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews had gathered in Méron for the resumption of an annual pilgrimage, after a year of hiatus due to the pandemic, as part of the Jewish holiday of Lag Baomer.
Responsibility search
Despite the mourning, questions kept tormenting the Israelis: what really happened at Mount Meron? Could the drama have been avoided?
According to witnesses interviewed by Agence France-Presse, a mass of people left the scene around midnight fifty, on the sidelines of a “Bonfire”. But this exit required at one point to pass through a narrow corridor, which caused a bottleneck. The faithful, mostly young men and teenagers, were then crushed by the panicked crowd.
The chief of police for northern Israel, Shimon Lavi, took the ” responsibility “ of this tragedy. But this declaration did not end the debate on the responsibilities in this tragedy, especially as several had repeated for years that the security at this gathering was often uncertain.
Public Security Minister Amir Ohana said over the weekend that he too was taking responsibility for ” responsibility “ of this drama but without accepting the “Blame”. And the Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, a close friend of the Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, was in the hot seat for having, according to the local press, chartered buses to allow ultra-Orthodox to go to the site of this pilgrimage. .
