Mandelblit: State inquiry into Meron disaster removes necessity for police probes
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit has said he has suspended the investigations by the police and the Justice Ministry’s Department for Police Investigations into the Meron disaster because a State Commission of Inquiry has taken over the probe.
Mandelblit made his move after consulting with the State Attorney, the head of the police’s Investigations and Intelligence Department and the head of the Department for Police Investigations.
Following the disaster in which 45 men and boys were crushed to death at the Meron pilgrimage site in April, the police and the Department for Police Investigations began criminal probes but did not advance beyond preliminary steps, Mandelblit said on Monday.
“Given that the Meron State Commission of Inquiry has now begun acting, the attorney-general said that it was now appropriate to suspend other investigations and defer to it.”
The commission began work on Monday and all the documentation from the two other investigations will be handed to it and testimony they gleaned may also be transferred in due course.
The commission also announced that it would publish calls in four newspapers, including three ultra-Orthodox
daily newspapers calling for anyone willing to give evidence to contact the panel.
The announcements will also call on anyone who previously warned of the state of the site to make themselves known to the commission.
The commission added that all the major government bodies and authorities involved in running the Meron pilgrimage had been asked to submit all relevant documentation regarding their preparations and instructions for the Meron Lag Ba’omer gathering this year, and any to show permits they issued for the event.
These bodies include the
police, the so-called “Committee of Five” which manages the site, Meron Hagalil Regional Council, the Public Security Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and the Religious Services Ministry.
The committee also asked that the Land Enforcement Authority of the Finance Ministry provide it with plans of all the structures at the site, including the temporary structures that were in place this year.
The committee asked for details of the legal status of all the structures, including those in dispute, whether or not each building was legally built and what legal proceedings are
ongoing concerning any such structures.
The commission also asked for footage of the walkway from Toldot Aharon plaza to the point where the crush took place.
The infrastructure at Meron is old, makeshift and not suitable to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who visit every Lag Ba’omer.
In addition, much of the ownership of the different buildings at the site falls under the control of small charitable organizations, or are in dispute, a situation which has severely hampered efforts to upgrade the site.