Some 25 bereaved families gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Thursday to pray for the loved ones they lost in the Meron stampede 30 days earlier.
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"A month after the national tragedy, we are appalled to find out that instead of investigating the matter in order to prevent any future such disaster, a system is being created whose main function is to cover up the biggest civil disaster in the history of the state," said Rabbi Nachman Meir Elchadad, who lost his sons Yosef David and Moshe Mordechai in Meron.
"Our conscience will not be eased until we have done everything to ensure that other people's worlds will not be shattered like ours was on the day of the tragedy," he said. Elchadad called on politicians "to put aside their personal interests" and establish a state commission of inquiry into the stampede that took the lives of 45 people, including children as young as nine.
Housing Minister Yakov Litzman hosted the representatives of the bereaved families, who asked him for support in the process of launching an inquiry. Yisrael Diskind, who lost his younger brother Simcha Bunim, shared with Litzman the pain caused to the families by what he described as cover-up attempts, and asked the housing minister to make sure the matter was not swept under the rug.
Litzman vowed full support for the establishment of a thorough, transparent and non-biased commission.
"We will work together with the body that will be assigned the responsibility of investigating this terrible tragedy" and leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of truth and making sure that such an event never happens at this holy site again, Litzman said.
He also spoke in favor of the government proposal to compensate the families of the victims.
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