MK (Yahadut Hatorah) used the Knesset plenum forum to express his outrage over the Lag B’Omer transportation fiasco in which so many visitors to Meron were stranded, some for hours.
Eichler pointed out how women and children were among the many stranded, detailing the difficult situation on the unseasonably hot spring day. He reports that 500,000 Jews arrived in Meron and despite all efforts and the ability to plan for months in advance; the day’s events did not pass as it should have due to the breakdown in transportation services and severe shortage of parking lots.
Eichler pointed out that in past years the day passed without incident. Hundreds of thousands traveled to and from Kever Rashbi but this year, something went wrong. He cited that “tens of thousands of travelers waited in the heat for hours, some six hours, without water” and he wants those responsible to be held accountable.
Eichler called for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to probe the day’s events towards determining where the responsibility lies to hold those responsible accountable and towards making certain the problems are corrected.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Its insanity to have a half million people in a country like EY running to the same place at one time…it creates huge security and logistical concerns and diverts scarce resources at a time the country can ill-afford it. Its also ironic that some of the same Chareidi rabbonim and political hacks who are always slamming the IDF and security forces are among the first to complain when they fail to perform to their expectations to a large extent because of limited numbers. Assuming you are a big believer in all the yeshuahs that flow from daveing at the kever of SBY at Meron, then they should spread out the festivities over a week rather than on one night.
There should be an investigation with solutions proposed and changes put into effect. There should be a ban on private vehicles to Meron starting a day before and excess EGGED busses are needed for returning persons that came earlier, or on their own or slept in the area.
Good idea, MK Eichler.
GedolHadorah,
the “festivities” only can be done on Lag Ba’Omer (maybe you can make a petition with Moshe Rabbeinu to make a Lag Ba’Omer Sheini) Secondly, Oh Please, if the Siyum HaShas can turn out fine then this shouldn’t be any different unless the soldiers/government don’t want to keep it orderly
Typical chareidi attitude. This MK wants the whole country turned up-side down for a Lag B’omer celebration but, Chas V’Shalom, the yeshiva boys should even THINK about doing anything to serve the country.
The typical coach bus seats forty people. Half a million divided by 40 is 12,500. Egged, the largest bus operator in Israel, has 2,951 buses according to their web site, and on a weekday workday most will be in service on their usual lines. Egged claims to operate 55% of the public transit in Israel, so lets suppose that there are a total of 6,000 buses in Israel (possibly an overestimate). The numbers don’t work. Period.
#5 Right on, a thought out and mathematical impossibility… unless there is a thought to close down the entire country and dedicate all buses for Meron.
These gimmel mks are so devoid of political savvy its tragic.This statement in a vacum is fine,but when every public statement or policy concerns some provincial small bore matter,it just further weakens the charedi position.how about promoting something usefull to everyone like loosening ridiculous govt restrictions on land or taxes ect.
This was the annual transportation failure Maybe he just woke up and is bored in opposition, couldn’t find anything more worthwhile to oppose.
Or was he blinded all there years
The solution lies with organization and administration from the Haredi community. Religious Jews should not be looking towards the state for leadership.
#5 and #6, if you needed to take all the people at exactly the same time you would be right. But this is a whole day! A bus doesn’t take 40 people and then go home for the day. It goes back and forth. By Meron, I am pretty sure that many of the buses go to and from nearby parking lots; not all are on the road for a few hours with those 40 people.
And please note: this has worked in past years and apparently did not this year (I wasn’t there, not this year and not any year). If it could be done some years, it didn’t become a mathematical impossibility this year.