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2021-04-30 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Mount Meron tragedy: 44 killed, over 150 injured in Lag Ba'omer stampede
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[JPost] - At least 44 people were killed on Thursday night after a stampede broke out as massive crowds gathered at the Mount Meron religious bonfire-lighting ceremony for the holiday of Lag Ba'omer, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "heavy disaster."
Rescue operations were underway Friday morning to evacuate the thousands of people who were still at the scene. The Transportation Ministry sent 300 empty buses to rescue the worshippers, but they were reportedly stuck in traffic due to the lack of police management of the event.
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews had thronged to the Mount Meron tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai for annual Lag Baomer commemorations that include all-night prayer, mystical songs and dance. Most of the dead were said to be from the Toldot Aharon hassidic sect, based in Jerusalem.
| Update at 12:30 pm ET: Lord Garth gives us the Times of Israel take on the story, which describes the problem area in detail: |
And at around 1 a.m. Friday morning, as large numbers of those participants made their way along a metal-floored walkway on the exit route, a disaster unfolded. The crowds were pulsing, the floor was slippery, police officers apparently blocked the exit from the narrow walkway for a time.
"There's an aluminum-floored walkway, then a stairway, and then there was a barrier," said Eli Pollack, the head of the United Hatzalah emergency rescue service. "It was a death trap."
The crush grew heavier, people fell and were trapped, a stampede ensued. "People didn't realize what was happening until it was too late," the ultra-Orthodox journalist Yaakov Eichler, told Israel's Channel 12 news hours later.
By the time they did realize, at least 45 people were dead, and dozens more were injured, many of them seriously.
The ceremonies at Meron are based on a legend that second century rabbi Shimon ben Yochoi emerged from a cave having written (or spoken) the Book of Glory (Zohar) which is a foundational Kabbalah text. Of course the Zohar using vocabulary not in existence during be Yochai's life is generally considered to be a 13th century text)
| Update at 12:40 pm ET: Skidmore give us the Daily Mail’s report, which has photos, videos, and the names of the first of the dead to be identified. |
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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2021-04-30 02:27||
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