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Lag B'Omer religious festival 30/04/2021

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State inquiry blames Netanyahu, but does not sanction him, for deadly 2021 Meron crush

Commission says there was ‘reasonable basis’ to conclude PM knew site was dangerous; also names Ohana, Shabtai as responsible for disaster in which 45 men and boys died

Ultra-Orthodox parties: We’ll learn lessons of inquiry into deadly 2021 Meron crush

Shas minister pans PM’s Likud party for painting commission’s work as politically motivated, demands retraction; Likud minister Barkat urges Netanyahu to take responsibility

Panel blames Israeli neglect for 2021 crowd disaster, implicates Netanyahu

JERUSALEM – An Israeli commission of inquiry said on Wednesday that years of neglect at the top levels of government led to the death of 45 people at an overcrowded religious festival in 2021, directly implicating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the disaster.

Dozens killed in stampede at Jewish religious festival in Israel

Jerusalem — A stampede at a religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed at least 44 people and injured some 150 others early on Friday, medical officials said, in one of the country’s deadliest civilian disasters. The stampede occurred during the celebrations of Lag BaOmer at Mount Meron.

At least 44 dead and many more hurt in stampede at Israeli Lag B'Omer festival disaster

Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said at least 150 people were hurt with six in critical, 18 seriously hurt, eight in moderate condition, and 80 lightly injured – but numbers varied wildly as medics struggled to access a site packed with 100,000 people, despite parts of it being limited to 10,000.

Dozens killed in crush at religious event in northern Israel

Mount Meron, Israel (CNN)Israeli investigators are examining what caused a crush that killed at least 44 worshipers and injured 100 more at a mass religious gathering in Mount Meron overnight.

LinkedIn

It's a crowd crush NOT A STAMPEDE - the difference is important!

Ed Galea

Director FSEG University of Greenwich

Commentary on media coverage

Examples of inaccurate and lazy journalism from the BBC, NY Times, Sky News and The Telegraph

Israel stampede: Dozens killed in crush at religious festival in Mount Meron

More than 40 people, including children, feared dead and 50 injured at massive Lag B’Omer gathering

Israel: At least 44 killed after stampede at religious bonfire festival attended by tens of thousands

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, describes the incident at the Lag B’Omer as a “heavy disaster”.

The Guardian

Hajj crush: how crowd disasters happen, and how they can be avoided

Leo Benedictus @theguardian 2015

Mass panic? Stampedes? Nonsense, say the experts trying to stop another disaster like last week’s in Mecca: they’re failures of management, and they aren’t inevitable. So why aren’t they a thing of the past?

Dozens killed in crush at Lag Baomer religious festival in Israel

At least 44 people have been killed and about 150 injured in a crowd crush at a Jewish religious gathering in northern Israel attended by tens of thousands of people, in one of the country’s worst peacetime disasters.

Israel: Dozens dead in stampede at Lag B'Omer religious gathering

A stampede at the Lag B’Omer Jewish festival at Mount Meron in northern Israel attended by tens of thousands of people has left dozens dead and many more injured.

pnas

Social identification moderates the effect of crowd density on safety at the Hajj

Hani Alnabulsi and  John Drury.

Abstract

Crowd safety is a major concern for those attending and managing mass gatherings, such as the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca (also called Makkah). One threat to crowd safety at such events is crowd density. However, recent research also suggests that psychological membership of crowds can have positive benefits. We tested the hypothesis that the effect of density on safety might vary depending on whether there is shared social identification in the crowd. We surveyed 1,194 pilgrims at the Holy Mosque, Mecca, during the 2012 Hajj. Analysis of the data showed that the negative effect of crowd density on reported safety was moderated by social identification with the crowd. Whereas low identifiers reported reduced safety with greater crowd density, high identifiers reported increased safety with greater crowd density. Mediation analysis suggested that a reason for these moderation effects was the perception that other crowd members were supportive. Differences in reported safety across national groups (Arab countries and Iran compared with the rest) were also explicable in terms of crowd identification and perceived support. These findings support a social identity account of crowd behavior and offer a novel perspective on crowd safety management.

Cambridge university press

It’s a crush… It’s a collapse… It’s… Wait, that’s No Stampede!

Sravani Alluri,
Amalia Voskanyan,
Ritu R. Sarin,
Michael S. Molloy and
Gregory R. Ciottone

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