If every year we remember Meron shortly before Lag BaOmer, this year there is a refreshing change: members of the Meron Affairs Committee, MKs David Tzur and Israel Eichler, have already gathered for their first discussion, as they try to draw lessons from the events of the last Lag BaOmer.<\/p>\r\n
The discussion was attended by MKs Menachem Eliezer Mozes and Uri Maklev, along with Yossi Schweinger and Israel Deri from the Holy Places Authority. Representatives of the police, the Ministry of Transportation, and other government ministries also participated.<\/p>\r\n
The first discussion mainly included a detailed review by the police commanders and a representative from the Ministry of Transportation who managed the transportation and security system for Lag BaOmer in Meron, and held internal lessons learned meetings on the Meron events. According to them, all the necessary lessons were learned for the next Lag BaOmer.<\/p>\r\n
During the discussion, MK Tsur said that it is impossible to conduct such a large event without planning in advance the ways of arrival, stay, and dispersal of the public. "Even those who are not religious must admit," he said. "Because only by a miracle did the Lag BaOmer events end without casualties and in an exemplary manner, but we do not rely on miracles.".<\/p>\r\n
According to him, additional parking lots and entrance and exit gates must be added, and organized bus terminals must be established. "All of this is not done at the last minute, so we will hold discussions on all the details this summer, and already at the beginning of the winter session, plan in detail all the expansions and implement the infrastructure required to safely accommodate the masses.".<\/p>\r\n
MK Eichler said that indeed, thanks to Rabbi Shimon, everyone came and left in peace. "One must see the three-quarters of the glass full of the things that were done, and that most of the time they acted appropriately; but one must not accept the quarter of the glass that was emptied.".<\/p>\r\n
When the police and government ministries talk about "success," it must be remembered that this came at the expense of tens of thousands of Jews who did not come this year because of the transportation decrees. "There was a decrease of tens of thousands of people, who did not come for fear of the transportation problems.".<\/p>\r\n
According to the police, this year too, 100,000 people came in private cars, despite warnings not to come in private cars, and these people suffered from the lack of parking lots and long hours of waiting for shuttles. There were also serious shortcomings in Karmiel, Safed and Nahariya.<\/p>\r\n
This is how fifty thousand people who came in a thousand private buses suffered, most of whom were not allowed to go up the mountain, due to an unwillingness to expand the traffic circle to allow the absorption of all buses without discrimination between public transportation companies and other companies.<\/p>\r\n
\""We must add fifty dunams of parking lots right now, add exits and roads on the different sides of the mountain, like at the Megiddo spring on one side and the Bar Yochai area on the other," Eichler added. "We can direct traffic in a way that will allow hundreds of thousands of revelers to go up and down, and also expand the public's seating and dancing areas to the entire circumference of the mountain. We need to expand the inner traffic circle and turn the main road into a pedestrian street.<\/p>\r\n
\""Organized transportation terminals, such as a central station, should be prepared with large, illuminated signage, so that everyone can know which gate to exit from and which station to arrive at, and a bottleneck will not be created that makes people live in confinement. We must not repeat the folly of pouring tens of thousands of people through one or two exit gates and trying to stop them on the road with fences, horses, and violence.".<\/p>\r\n
MK Mozes praised the police and all the factors that led to the success of the operation, but criticized the poor infrastructure for absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jews, such as the power and water outages, the sewage puddles, and the digging of the road in Moshav Meron. MK Mozes asked to prepare a plan to draw lessons not only on what was done but also on what needs to be done, so that the public will not be afraid to come to the place and will not be forced to crowd onto the buses as was the case at the end of Lag B'Omer this year.<\/p>\r\n
Schwinger and Deri presented their plan for accommodating the celebrants inside the mountain and distributing water along the way and in the parking lots. According to them, there was a decrease of about 30 percent in the number of people coming to Meron this year. They will present the details of what has been done and what needs to be fixed in the next discussions.<\/p>\r\n
Representatives of MDA and United Hatzalah, the local council and Moshav Meron, the Ministry of Health, and representatives of public and private transportation companies were invited to the next meetings of the committee. All were asked to submit a detailed report on the successes and failures of the past year, and to present an action plan for next year.<\/p>\r\n
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