A government investigative commission says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is personally responsible for the 2021 Meron disaster, in which 45 people were killed in a stampede on the hilltop burial site of a 2nd-century Elder Century man in northern Israel.
However, the investigation does not make any operational recommendations for Mr. Netanyahu. In addition, the Commission also considers the former Minister of Public Security, Amir Ohana, personally responsible for the disaster and recommends that he should not be reappointed to this position.
The report points the finger at police chief Kobi Shabtai, who is also responsible, and that he should be removed from his post. However, given Israel's current security challenges, the report says the government should wait to remove him from office. Yaakov Avitan, then Minister of Religious Services, is also held personally responsible in the 322-page report. The commission recommends that he no longer be appointed minister.
45 men and boys were killed on April 30, 2021, in a stampede on the tomb of the 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel during the annual Lag B'Omer celebrations after 100,000 worshipers, mostly Members of the ultra-Orthodox community flocked to the holy site despite longstanding warnings about the security of the complex.