Rabbi Yossi Schwinger, director of the National Center for the Development of the Holy Places, which is responsible for the Kever Rashbi site, testified to the state commission of inquiry into the Meron disaster on Monday.

His testimony was an especially emotional one. At one point he burst into tears and said: “I’m a half a person since I saw the resuscitations, a third of a person. A father yelled at me: ‘Why did you put up a barrier?’ I told him that I didn’t put up barriers. He spit at me. I request that everyone take their spit to my kever, it will be my meilitz yosher.”

“Since then my life isn’t a life. I’ve been through a lot in my life but now my life is divided into before Meron and after Meron. It doesn’t matter if I’m guilty or not, that night will accompany me until my last day.”

In his testimony, Schwinger said that the  National Center of Holy Places is under the command of the police regarding everything involved with Meron on Lag B’Omer. “It’s an extremely difficult operational event,” he said. “There wasn’t one demand that we didn’t implement. We were the intermediate body that implemented the police guidelines. The Israel Police is unequivocally responsible for this incident.”

The head of the commission, retired Supreme Court Justice Miriam Naor, asked Schwinger if a manager was appointed for the Meron event and he replied: “There’s no designated director of the event.”

“Why?” Naor asked. “I’ll explain,” Schwinger responded. “In 2008, former Tourism Minister Aharonovitch told me: ‘Don’t take responsibility for Lag B’Omer. What do you know about security? What do you know about maintaining public order and traffic? This is an event for Israel Police. You do what they ask. Don’t interfere into matters that you don’t understand.'”

“The Legal Bureau also clarified that it’s a spontaneous religous event, no one has control over the size of the crowd. The State Comptroller’s report also had no criticism about the conduct of the National Center.”

Schwinger also presented a document to the commission signed by the police in 2018 which lists the division of roles between the Police and the National Center for Holy Places. The document states that the National Center for Holy Places receives instructions from the police. “This document reveals who truly was the boss,” he said.

Schwinger complained to the commission about how the police treated him and the National Center. “I didn’t have any material, it was all taken from us. We’re the only body in the state of Israel that didn’t come prepared, they took dozens of documents. Sometimes one document can change the whole picture. The police didn’t even deny it, they told me: ‘Talk to the commission.’ Also my phone. I begged them to give me back my phone but they wouldn’t. I won’t even mention the fact that the last pictures of my late wife and late mother are on the phone. They told me that only the commission can decide.”

Naor responded that the commission has no opposition to the police returning the material. “That’s what the police told me,” he repeated. “They also raided my home and ransacked all my closets in a disrespectful manner.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)