Gov’t set to approve state commission of inquiry for Meron
Gantz to submit proposal for state commission into submarine affair
The government is expected to establish a state committee of inquiry into the Meron disaster on Sunday to determine what caused the fatal crush at the holy site some 52 days ago, and who is responsible.
The cabinet will vote on a resolution brought by Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, which is expected to easily pass.
On April 30, some 45 men and boys, mostly ultra-Orthodox, died in a mass crush on Mount Meron, the site of the tomb of Talmudic sage Shimon Bar Yohai, where tens of thousands of pilgrims had gathered for the annual Lag Ba’omer celebrations in what was Israel’s worst civilian disaster.
The previous government refused to establish a state commission of enquiry, which would be free of political interference, in contravention of the wishes of the majority of the families of the victims who have argued that only a truly independent panel will be able to find who was responsible for the death of their loved ones and prevent such a disaster in the future.
“As I promised, tomorrow I will bring to the cabinet for its approval, together with Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, [a resolution to establish] a state committee of inquiry into the disaster that took place at Meron,” said Gantz Saturday night.
“A disaster which should have been avoided obligates us to learn systemic lessons at the national level,” he continued.
“The 45 victims no committee can return, and the physical and mental scars of hundreds present at the scene we can not hide, but we can prevent the next tragedy, we can prevent the pain of many families. Only a state committee of inquiry, which is not dependent on any
political official, will be able to get to the truth, and I personally and the members of the entire government, are committed to this.”
State Commissions of Inquiry are headed by a judge who appoints the other members of the panel, and are independent of all governmental influence from the moment they are appointed.
The crush at Meron occurred at the end of a major ceremony on Lag Ba’omer night, when thousands of men exited a central plaza via a narrow metal walkway with a significant downward slope ending with a 90 degree bend and a flight of steps.
The crush took place on that walkway as thousands of men and boys found themselves compressed into this tiny space with more pilgrims filing into the walkway from the rear unaware of what was happening further down and trapping those already inside.
The complex of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s grave at Meron is old, small, decrepit, makeshift, and in no way fit for the 200,000 to 300,000 pilgrims who flock to the site every year on Lag Ba’omer.
Previous efforts to address concerns raised by state authorities and the police have failed due to the highly complex and tangled legal situation regarding ownership of the land and infrastructure at the site, and intense legal opposition of their owners to any changes.
On Thursday, United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Asher wrote to Gantz calling on him not to form a state committee of inquiry, saying that it would not deal with rectifying the poor infrastructure at the site and that it was “forbidden” to allow a civil judge authority and control over a holy site.
“The ultra-Orthodox claim is that establishing a state committee of inquiry is contaminated with populist motivations and takes advantage of the families of those killed in a cynical exercise to grant exaggerated authorities to a court over a holy site, something unprecedented which would negatively affect other matters, by which to a few guilty people and to slaughter them in the media in order to fulfil the obligation, so to speak, which there is no real intention to resolve the crisis at Meron for the benefit and security of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who visit the site of the godly sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai,” wrote Asher.
The UTJ MK again advanced his party’s suggestion that a public committee of inquiry including representatives of government ministries appointed by ministers be created, instead of the state committee.
According to Yisrael Diskin, a spokesman for the Forum of Families of the Meron Disaster Victims, and in contradiction of Asher’s claims, the majority of the families are in favor of a formal committee of inquiry specifically on condition that it be totally independent of political influences and Diskin, whose brother Simcha Bunim, was one of those who died in the crush, said that “from what the families have seen” the only type of investigation that would be free of political interference and would be able to prevent another such disaster would be a state commission of inquiry.
IN ADDITION, Gantz is expected to submit a resolution proposing the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the purchase of the submarines and vessels, his office announced on Saturday night.
The draft resolution that will be formulated in the coming days will be submitted following the end of the staff work in the Defense Ministry and in coordination with Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit.
The committee will have the ability to examine the state inquiry “in-depth and independently, in contrast to the ministry committee” that Gantz had tried to establish in light of Netanyahu’s opposition to the state inquiry, his office said.
“I expect that this time, all government ministers will support the establishment of the committee,” Gantz said. “The question marks must not be left open, and conclusions must be drawn.”
In November Gantz had said that he would set up a government committee of inquiry to investigate the procurement of new submarines and vessels from Germany but former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to approve it.
Gantz then appointed retired judge Amnon Straschnov, who was chief military prosecutor, to lead the inquiry. Alongside him, Gantz appointed Yael Grill, the former head of procurement in the Prime Minister’s Office and head of the economic unit of the Defense Ministry Production and Procurement Directorate, as well as Gen. (res.) Avraham BenShoshan, a former commander of the Israel Navy and military attaché at the Embassy of Israel in Washington DC.
According to Globes, the committee’s work was to focus on the procurement of the three new submarines and Netanyahu’s demand for the purchase of a fourth.
The committee did not start its activities due to difficulties in obtaining the power needed. Then, with the announcement of the fourth round of elections, Gantz decided to suspend the efforts to establish it. Since then, indictments were filed in the case and it’s possible to establish such a committee where the evidence is legally binding.
Gantz’s office has already addressed the matter to the office of Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy and the discussion on the subject will take place in the coming days.
In response the Likud said that Gantz himself said “dozens of times” that there was no need to investigate the case.
“What will change now that Gantz decides to drag the defense establishment into a political debate? It is unfortunate that even after combing through the affair with iron combs and finding nothing and after former senior members of the National Security Council testified that there was no flaw in the purchase of the submarines and vessels, Gantz continues a blind pursuit against Netanyahu and the Likud,” the statement said.
The Submarine Affair is an ongoing scandal involving a multibillion dollar submarine deal with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp AG conglomerate over several years, including 2016, in which the political class has made accusations against former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his being cleared by law enforcement.
In December 2019 as well as on other occasions, Mandelblit announced he will likely indict top officials close to Netanyahu and top former Naval officials for bribery to advocate for the purchase of unnecessary extra submarines and military boats from the ThyssenKrupp.
Among those close to Netanyahu and already implicated in the affair are lawyer David Shimron, a confidant and cousin of Netanyahu; David Sharan, a former chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office; and Avriel Bar-Yosef, a former deputy national security adviser.
Former naval chief Eliezer Marom and other top officials are also expected to be indicted.
Nevertheless, the attorney-general concluded that there is no proof Netanyahu knew about the scheme, and that at most, he pushed for buying the vessels under suspicious circumstances.
Gantz’s inquiry was designed to go beyond legal standards of proof to determine if Netanyahu’s conduct in the affair was unethical.
Israel currently has three Dolphin-class submarines and two Dolphin 2-class submarines. The subs are said to have a shelf-life of around 30 years, making them obsolete in another 10 years.
The Israel-bound subs in question are said to have 16 multipurpose torpedo tubes which can fire torpedoes and even swimmer delivery systems. According to foreign reports, these submarines provide Israel with nuclear second-strike capabilities, carrying long-range cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. They would not reach Israel’s coast for another decade.
Separately, the cabinet is also expected to approve the appointments of 35 ambassadors and consuls-general, which were held up by the previous government for six months, after they were authorized by its Committee for Foreign Service Appointments.
That committee is expected to convene on Sunday, ahead of the cabinet meeting, to approve the appointments of Foreign Ministry diplomats to Thailand, Sweden, the Vatican, Senegal, Panama, EU institutions in Brussels, Japan and more.
The Movement for Quality Government and the Foreign Ministry Workers’ Union petitioned the High Court against Netanyahu two weeks ago to require him to let the appointments go to a cabinet vote.