State Agrees To Compensate Families Of Meron Disaster Victims- Up To 2.9M NIS Per Victim

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Over four years after the disaster at Meron which took the lives of 45 people, a compensation agreement for the families of the victims will soon be submitted for court approval, according to a report on B’Chadrei Charedim. The agreement was formulated based on the proposals of attorney Eran Becker, who represents several of the bereaved families, and who suggested a compensation framework.

According to the agreement, families of victims aged 24 and under are expected to receive significant financial compensation.

In one of the main cases, one family is expected to receive approximately 2.9 million shekels. In other cases, similar amounts have been proposed, depending on the age of the deceased. The compensation will be paid by the State of Israel, the National Center for the Development of Holy Places, and insurance companies.

Attorneys Eran Becker and Moran Cohen Yonatan, who represent some of the families, stated that the compensation reflects not only the magnitude of the loss but also the degree of responsibility that should be placed on the state and the bodies involved in the failures leading up to the disaster.

“The writing was on the wall – decades of willful blindness led to a disaster that could have been avoided,” they said.

The Meron disaster occurred on the night of Lag BaOmer in 2021, during the annual hilula at the site. Due to severe overcrowding, 45 people were crushed to death and over 150 were injured.

In March 2024, the State Commission of Inquiry published its findings after presenting them to the government. The commission determined that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears personal responsibility for the event, as do former Public Security Minister Amir Ohana and then Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai.

Among the commission’s recommendations:

• Amir Ohana should not be appointed as Public Security Minister in the future.
• No practical recommendation was issued regarding Netanyahu, but the commission made it clear that he should have recognized the danger posed by the unsafe conditions at the Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) site and acted accordingly.
• The commission rejected Netanyahu’s claim that he was unaware of the risk, stating: “There is reasonable basis to believe that Netanyahu knew the site was being mismanaged.”