Warning letter issued to Netanyahu over fatal crush at religious gathering last year

An Israeli state commission of inquiry has sent a warning letter to former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu over last year’s stampede on Mount Meron in northern Israel on the Jewish festival of Lag B’Omer, which left 45 people dead and another 145 injured.

Mr Netanyahu was one of 18 people who testified before the commission who received warning letters, including former public security minister Amir Ohana and the current police chief, Insp Gen Yaakov Shabtai.

The commission informed Mr Netanyahu that a “person who served as prime minister for more than 12 years knows — or should have known — that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s gravesite at Meron has been neglected for years,” and that that neglect was “likely to have been dangerous”.

The commission added: “Netanyahu did not take the actions one would have expected the prime minister to take to fix this situation despite the fact that the level of neglect at the site had been the subject of many serious reports by the state comptroller, that the issue involved several government ministries and had been tabled for discussion by the cabinet several times over the years.”

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The April 2021 incident, the biggest civilian disaster in Israel’s history, occurred as thousands of people celebrating the Lag B’Omer festival poured into a narrow walkway. Some people slipped down a flight of stairs, toppling onto those below and precipitating a fatal domino effect.

Nearly all the fatalities were from the ultra-Orthodox community.

In his testimony before the committee Mr Netanyahu denied responsibility for any of the safety measures claiming an Israeli prime minister is too busy to be involved in the details of every event.

“I can’t take responsibility for what I didn’t know,” he told the panel. “I didn’t know that there was a critical safety problem.”

The inquiry can recommend that any of the officials who were sent warning letters resign or be prevented from serving in similar roles in the future. However, it will likely be at least a year before any such decisions are taken.

Only one of the 18 has resigned - the former head of the police Northern district.

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party accused the inquiry of timing the letters to influence the November election.

“Since the country was established, no state commission of inquiry sent warning letters to political candidates during an election period,” it said. “It is saddening that the committee of investigation, which was established on the Bennett-Lapid government’s initiative, chose to do so.”

Defence minister Benny Gantz, who pushed for the probe, denied a political motivation. “We are not looking to cast blame, we are looking for responsibility and to learn lessons,” he said.