When Northern District Police Commander Shimon Lavie, who oversaw the security arrangements for the Lag B'Omer celebrations at Mount Meron, took responsibility for the tragedy Friday, he showed, first and foremost, that he is a man of values and morality. He must now do the right thing and resign.
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Debates over who bears responsibility for the catastrophe have been taking place since Friday, and one thing is clear: in the absence of an official supervising body, the Northern District was in charge of overlooking the site.
We know by now that the commanders of the district, Lavie among them, took a risk when they gave in to the pressure from various Haredi leaders and allowed thousands to enter Mount Meron.
And whoever caves in, knowing full well that he will not be able to control an event of this magnitude, is expected to bear the responsibility. Lavie has no choice but to resign.
The question is, should Levi be the only one held responsible? In contrast to other leaders, who are pointing fingers and shifting blame, he accepted the blame.
In 2007, three months before the end of his term, then-Israel Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi made a decision to resign based on findings of the Zeiler Commission that examined police misconduct in the murder of Pinhas Buhbout.
"Out of a desire to set a personal example, for my role and the organization I lead, I've decided to resign as the commissioner of the Israel Police," he said then.
The attempts on behalf of the current Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and his men to shift blame by saying "but we warned" are doomed to fail. There is no recipe for resigning. Most of the time, the decision stems from the person's own conscience.
True, the police is not the only one responsible for what occurred on Mount Meron, but as the body that had been entrusted with maintaining law and order, the right thing to do is to give back to the public their trust in law enforcement, and from now on, also in its most senior commanders.
For now, as the commissioner and senior officers are under investigation, reestablishing that trust is impossible.
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