Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII) is proposing compensation in the amount of 100,000 shekels ($30,800) for each of the families who lost loved ones in the Lag B’Omer stampede at Mount Meron. A total of 45 participants in the festivities, including children as young as 9, were killed.
The investigation into the Mount Meron disaster is still underway, and a government commission of inquiry has not yet been formed, though Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved the fast-tracking of a bill to establish one.
At the request of the Knesset Finance Committee, which is chaired by Knesset member Moshe Gafni of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, National Insurance Institute director general Meir Spiegel sent Gafni a draft version of the proposal for compensation.
The NII explains in the letter to Gafni that the monetary compensation would be awarded in addition to existing NII rights or compensatory damages ruled by a court.
The NII did not pull the suggested framework for compensation out of thin air. The letter points to existing compensatory arrangements that were based on a public commission established to investigate the collapse of the Versailles event venue in Jerusalem 20 years ago, in which 23 guests fell to their deaths when the upper floor of the building collapsed, and 380 more were left injured.
Following the Versailles affair, the Knesset passed a law to help survivors and bereaved families that included the formation of a dedicated committee charged with handling the injured and paying out compensation.
Spiegel pointed out that in the case of Versailles, the compensation to the families came entirely from the government, and was disbursed through the NII.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.