Families are weeping for their children, medics are struggling with post-traumatic stress and citizens have been donating blood for the injured. Israel is reeling from its worst-ever civilian tragedy.

Families are weeping for their children, medics are struggling with post-traumatic stress and citizens have been donating blood for the injured. Israel is reeling from its worst-ever civilian tragedy. The crush that killed 45 people and injured 150 at a religious celebration in the Galilee had eerie similarities to the Hillsborough disaster. The annual festival of Lag B’Omer on Mount Meron is the largest gathering of Jewish people in the world. This year it was meant to have been a triumphant scene of the world’s top Covid-vaccinated state returning to normal.

Last year the event, by the grave of a rabbi said to have written the main text of Jewish mysticism 2,000 years ago, was a shadow of its normal self. I know, because I was one of a handful of journalists who were there. This year, the nation was itching to get back to normal, and almost 100,000 headed to the religious-ceremony-cum-party on 29 April. By the early hours of the next day it had ended in disaster.

Get Instant Access

Continue Reading

Register for free to read this article in full

REGISTER

Subscribe for unlimited access

SUBSCRIBE NOW

From just £37.50 quarterly

  Print copy of The Tablet delivered directly to your door.
  Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
  Access to the weekly digital copy of The Tablet.
  Full access to The Tablet’s archive – over 180 years of back issues.

Already a subscriber? Login