Video of a shocking incident has surfaced days after hundreds of thousands flocked to Meron to spend Lag B’Omer at Kever Rashbi. A border policeman appears to be holding a gas canister in his hand, moments after he directed the pepper spray at several individuals while the masses were singing and dancing.
The incident was first reported by Yaakov Reinitz in Hamodia, with BeChadrei Chareidim later providing the video.
Police later insisted the suspect was not an officer, despite the video clip showing him wearing the dark uniform of the security forces, and testimony from numerous witnesses that was checked and verified.
According to the description of events published in Hamodia, the suspect stood in the inner yard of the Tziyun, in the ezras noshim, near the door/mechitzah, while the band played on the balcony overhead. At some point, the policeman began using forceful crowd control methods against women, when several women objected. It appears he then decided to use the pepper spray, perhaps out of panic because of those shouting at him.
Additional testimony comes from an avreich from Elad, who requested to remain anonymous. “It occurred at 7:45PM, and I was in the yard of the tziyun and was dancing with Am Yisrael. Suddenly, I began to feel a choking feel, and people were beginning to get hysterical, many choking. They all began pushing towards the exit to get out of the area.
“No one really understand at those moments what occurred, and in a matter of second, the yard became a single mass of people that did not succeed in getting out of the area. There was enormous pressure”.
A Chossid with a 2-year-old child beside him, he said: “They are killing people, my son! He cannot breathe.” He further explained that some fell to the ground crying, unable to breathe – young and old alike. “I heard shouts of ‘Shema Yisrael’ and we could not get out of the awful situation”, said the Elad avreich.
The avreich said his glasses fell to the ground and were smashed, while his hat and coat were also lost in the mayhem.
Another avreich, R’ Moshe Landau filed a complaint with the Justice Ministry Police Investigations Unit, detailing the events in a similar fashion. He wrote how the pepper spray had so many choking, unable to breathe, adding it was difficult enough to breathe before the gas due to the volume of people. He adds his 9-year-old son was among the victims as hundreds of people tried to get out of the narrow passageway, albeit without success. “I felt like I was in the gas chamber I visited in Majdanek a few months ago.”
Police are investigating version of events provided by the witnesses, which differs considerably from the version police first received. They add, the video is only a partial representation of the events, and it does not display the entire incident as reported.
Police add the area in question is under 24-hour surveillance and they will get the video footage and eventually, the person responsible will be brought to justice.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Clearly this video is too little to gain any understanding of what really happened. On the contrary, when a chossid approaches him the police officer does not seem to act hostile towards him in the least. We’ll have to wait and see what the full story is.
To describe the Israeli “Border Policeman” in one word = Animals.
To describe their commanders in one word = Hooligans.
Last Thursday night at a Lag Baomer Seuda, i heard from a father of one of the victims that got caught up in the chaos, that was like a stampede there. He said that his son fell on a bunch of people, and other people on top of him, and he couldn’t breath, he was already saying Shema Yisroel, and then all of a sudden he was freed.
At that time his son among another 20 people were Hospitalized fro overnight observation.
The father gave a shevach Vehoiduah for the big nes. He didn’t know what exactly happened, but knew that the police were using pepper spray.
Mr Softwords,
When do we judge the police in their favour, & when do we judge the Chassidim IN THEIR favour?
I usually see Chassidim being bashed all day all night for whatever YWN reporting negative on them, but when it turns out that police are to be blamed there is not a word to be mentioned
Hi There,
I was stuck in this Chaos, I promise you guys i didn’t imagine of coming out alive, as i was in middle of dancing i suddenly began chocking and my face and throat began burning, not Knowing what could have gone wrong the 1st instinct i had was that this is an acid attack, so frantic i began pushing my way out, but as i was all the way in by the entrance of the Mara, i had a long way to get out of the chotzer, and meanwhile was struggling breathing, within seconds everyone began doing the same, so obviously what happens in such situations people began falling one on top of another, and by the time i was nearing the exit the whole width of the exit were laid with people one on top of another screaming Shama yisroel, heavy people lying on top of small children, and with everyone fighting for there life, trying to escape, i watched people just climbing and stamping over these guys lying on the floor, i Boruch Hasham made it out with Nisim (never mind it took me 12 hours to get back to my self, and the nightmares i am still having) but the site that i saw is indescribable!! i phoned my father telling him that without R’ Shimon preying for his guests he should be prepared to here tragic new of dozens …………. Thanks god that B’H no one died, but what are they waiting for trying to defend this criminal who caused all this?? are they waiting to hear dozens dead?? and only afterwords will they take this serious???!!! This person has to be brought to Justice!!!!! I can not begin to understand what he thought when spraying where there is such a crowd, i mean its obvious that putting such a crowd in panic is Dangerous!!
I have 2 American friends that were there one of them an EMT and one of them fell to the floor and was injured the story was exactly like that az the police officer got angry and sprayed pepper spray into the air on top of everybody and 70 people were wounded some of them unconscious 3 days after the event on Sunday morning two people were still on unconscious in the hospital
To: Gpbe,
Thank you for giving us the complete story. Thank you to Hashem for saving all of his wonderful children. Thank You Hashem.