The Commission of Inquiry into the 2021 Meron disaster sent warning letters on Tuesday to several senior officials who were involved in the decision-making during the tragedy that killed 45 people at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron.
Of those who received the letters: former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, former ministers Amir Ohana and Rabbi Yaakov Avitan, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, outgoing northern district chief Deputy Commissioner Shimon Lavi, and police security department chief Assistant Commissioner Morris Hen.
The full list of recipients will be published later today. The committee stated that the letters were only sent to those who held official positions during the disaster. Those who were warned may be harmed by the committee's findings, and therefore the committee is required to provide the inquiry materials and hear them again.
The letter reads: "After inspecting all of the information that was provided to us, we concluded that there are parties that may be harmed by the inquiry or its findings. There for, we have decided to send them warning letters."
The committee clarifies that it has to yet come to any conclusions and that this is just an intermediate stage, "The sending of this letter to specific individuals is not meant to determine our final decisions or recommendations."
The committee also commented on the defects that were found around the tomb complex: "During the committee's work, we uncovered many failures by the officials that worked on the issue for years.
For reasons of efficiency and for us to bring our findings and recommendations to the government as fast as possible we won't demand that everyone who had a hand in the issue is investigated."
Last month, the chief of the northern district police Deputy commissioner Shimon Lavi, who was warned by the committee, announced his resignation due to his involvement in the tragedy. In his resignation letter, he wrote "I never hid behind anyone, not even behind any of the others who bear responsibility as well. I have a personal feeling of responsibility, a feeling that comes from the job."