The failures that led to the tragedy at the levaya of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Halevy Wosner ZT”L led to the death of an avreich, leaving two others with serious injuries. Israel Police Dan District Chief Shimon Lavie is quoted telling Kikar Shabbos News that he accepts responsibility for the tragedy, adding he does not have a habit of passing the buck.

“I don’t make a habit of blaming others. I am commander of the incident and the responsibility rests squarely on my shoulders. I am obviously ready for any investigation” Lavie stated.

Lavie added that one must try to visualize the general picture, a levaya that began in a beis medrash and stretched the length of 1.5 kilometers involving tens of thousands of people.

Chief Lavie added that police personnel were around the aron as they should have been including Yassam commando police and EMS personnel. “They did their utmost to treat and evacuate the wounded exhibiting supreme bravery. Some policemen were injured as they evacuated the injured to the hospital” he explained.

“To my sorrow, the incident ended in tragedy and with seriously injured. It should not have ended this way. In such an event it is not a function of how many policemen are there for anyone who was inside the crowd understands the realities of the crushing of the masses and more police would not have changed the reality”.

Lavie stated he feels he can say police did all they could at the levaya, including the appropriate preparations and a detailed plan for escorting the levaya as required. He cited that when the aron left the beis medrash the crowd began heading to it and the situation led to the disaster.

Lavie said the Tel Aviv Police Chief appointed an investigatory team that will act indecently and not report to him, but to the Tel Aviv chief to guarantee impartiality.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)