Chareidim are freaking out, because they fear that their fraudulent shenanigans will come to light. Years ago the crooked askanim got the gedoilim to sign off on a "Kol Korah" that basically bashed the government for trying to take control of the security of Har Meron...
Anything under control of the chareidim is unfortunately a colossal disaster; if they cared about safety, it would haver come to this and you would think that they would welcome an inquiry... all the families of the victims want an official government investigation... that says it all!
Chareidim are great and have great organizations that help victims, but that only kicks in after a disaster, they have nothing in place to prevent a disaster.
The government should take over the site and manage it as they do the Kotel, Mearas HaMachpila and Kever Rachel.
The cabinet on Sunday will vote on a proposal to establish a state commission of inquiry into the Lag B’Omer crush at the Mount Meron pilgrimage site in April, which killed 45 people in Israel’s deadliest peacetime disaster.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman submitted the proposal on Thursday. It’s expected to be adopted unanimously by ministers, as all the coalition parties have expressed support for the investigation.
“This is an important step, aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future,” said Gantz in a tweet on Thursday. Liberman said the investigation will yield “justice for the families and prevent the next disaster in the State of Israel.”
The government will allocate NIS 6 million ($1.8 million) in the 2021 budget for the investigation, which in addition to pinpointing those responsible for the disaster will also offer broad recommendations on how to secure and organize mass religious festivals at Israel’s holy sites in the future, according to the text of the proposal. It will be run by a retired judge, appointed by the Supreme Court president, who will submit their conclusions to the government.
The state commission of inquiry can call witnesses and compel them to testify, though the report and testimony can’t be used as evidence in criminal proceedings, according to the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.
“The advantage of a State Commission of Inquiry is the breadth and depth of the inquiry it conducts, as well as the entrenched practice that the commission makes recommendations that can be both personal and systemic, and that governments not tend to ignore its recommendations, especially ones that are produced against individuals,” according to IDI.
The new government sworn in this week, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, has vowed to make the Meron investigation its first order of its business, after Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners held up the formation of such an inquiry.
The Israel Police is investigating the disaster and the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID) is examining the police response at the festival. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman has launched his own probe of the Meron incident, though it falls short of a state commission of inquiry.
Although police are investigating, no arrests have been made and few witnesses have been questioned.
The site, the second-most visited religious site in Israel after the Western Wall, appears to have become a kind of extraterritorial zone, with separate ultra-Orthodox sects organizing their own events and their own access arrangements, with no overall supervision, and with police routinely pressured by cabinet ministers and ultra-Orthodox politicians not to object.
Former police officials have said there had been fears for years that tragedy could strike as a result of the massive crowds and lack of supervision on Lag B’Omer.
No comments:
Post a Comment