Israeli Government To Authorize National Committee Of Inquiry Into Meron Tragedy

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In it’s first cabinet meeting Sunday, the new Israeli government is expected to authorize the establishment of a national committee of inquiry into the Meron tragedy which occurred nearly two months ago. The families of the victims welcomed the procedure but called on the committee to focus on how to change the current situation and not on searching for guilty parties.

Rabbi Avigdor Chayot, who lost his son Yedidia and his pupil Moshe Levi in the tragedy told Walla that he welcomed the establishment of the committee “on one condition” which was “that the committee should first and foremost deal with deficiencies at the site.” Chayut said that “I looked at the proposal submitted to the government and didn’t see this mentioned. In another ten months thousands of people will come to the memorial at Meron and I didn’t see anyone taking this upon himself. I have no interested in finding the guilty parties, this was a decree from heaven and it won’t bring my son and pupil back to life. This committee must fix the issues and if it focuses on that -I welcome it.”

Yisrael Diskind, who lost his brother Simcha in the tragedy, said that ” we hope that the committee will be headed by a person who recognizes the needs of the Chareidi public and will take measures to prevent another tragedy by acting both with sensitivity and determination. The decision on a committee of inquiry should have taken place the week after the tragedy, its sad that we had to fight for this by ourselves. I am full of hope that the lessons will be learned and in the near future the defects will be fixed before the next celebrations take place.”