MK (Yahadut HaTorah) Rav Yisrael Eichler feels the government must invest serious funds into renovating and improving Kever Rashbi, adding the site must receive funding in line with sites recognized as ‘national heritage sites’.

Eichler visited the tziyun along with Asra Kadisha officials and senior police commanders as Lag B’Omer preparations are underway. Officials responsible for the site told police commanders that the approach roads are inadequate, detailing some of the challenges surrounding the reality that hundreds of thousands of people will visit the tziyun on Lag B’Omer along with the days before and after.

Eichler mentions that the national government is now spending hundreds of millions on national heritage sites, and Rashbi must be included on this list. He lashed out against the government for spending enormous sums on preserving “Zionists heritage sites” while ignoring Meron, which attracts so many more than many of the other sites which enjoy state funding. Eichler stated no less than a million mispallalim and visitors arrive at Kever Rashbi annually.

The MK was responding to concerns expressed by police commanders, who cited the area is quite small and this complicates the realities surrounding efforts to accommodate the growing number of Lag B’Omer mispallalim and visitors.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)