Tens of thousands ascend Mt Meron as Israel celebrates Lag B’Omer

By World Israel News Staff

Tens of thousands of Israelis made the annual pilgrimage to Mount Meron to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to mark the Lag B’Omer holiday.

The occasion was marred by the memory of a fatal crush two years earlier, in which 45 people died scrambling to exit the holy site. This year visitors lit candles in the victims’ memory.

Police invested heavily in preventing a similar tragedy this year, deploying some 8,000 officers and Border Police officers in the area and more than a hundred firefighters, drones and helicopters Thousands of EMTs were also present.

According to Israeli media, two hundred thousand worshipers came to pay their respects at the tomb of the 2nd-century tannaitic sage, who died on Lag B’Omer, at different stages of the evening, and were required to buy tickets ahead of time.

A group of Jewish youths were caught on CCTV beating a Druze security guard after hearing him speak Arabic. Two of the culprits, a 17-year-old from the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Modi’in Illit and a 19-year-old from the northern town of Beit She’an, were arrested.

Health and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel visited the victim, Hamud Shafi, in the hospital on Monday. Arbel slammed the attack, saying it ran counter to the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Elsewhere in Israel, people lit enormous bonfires to commemorate the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans.