Police brace for unrest at Meron after drastic cutbacks to Lag B’Omer revelry

Cops block roads, decline to vacate thousands already at site as Haredim called on to arm themselves with pepper spray, tasers; alternate bonfire lighting planned in East Jerusalem

Police were gearing up for potential clashes with ultra-Orthodox pilgrims expected to try to ascend Mount Meron, after authorities drastically scaled back Lag B’Omer festivities at the northern shrine due to war-related gathering restrictions.

On Sunday morning, law enforcement announced the closure of all roads leading to Meron amid repeated Hezbollah violations of a ceasefire, scuttling plans for an annual mass pilgrimage to the site that would have taken place Monday evening.

Mount Meron — thought to be the resting place of the 2nd-century Jewish sage Shimon Bar Yochai — typically draws some 100,000 revelers each year to pray and light bonfires on Lag B’Omer. The holiday coincides with the Hebrew date of the rabbi’s death.

Though the general public is barred this year from attending three pared-down bonfire lightings set to take place Monday, thousands of Haredi pilgrims already arrived in the area in the days leading up to the holiday.

According to Channel 12, some 20,000 were estimated to be within the area police closed off, most of them staying at bed and breakfasts, guest houses and other temporary lodging.

Officers locked down the area Sunday and were ostensibly keeping non-residents from entering Meron, but nevertheless refrained from vacating those who had already arrived in the area.

Meanwhile, young Haredi men were seen hopping fences late into the night in an effort to reach the area, flouting police restrictions.

The longstanding tradition at Meron has suffered in recent years amid increasingly frequent flare-ups with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Past closures have sparked fierce clashes between police and Haredi worshipers attempting to break into the site.

Despite two alternate bonfire lighting ceremonies scheduled to take place in Jerusalem, many Haredi Jews were determined to reach the northern shrine. Some planned to make the journey ahead of the holiday, then return home before Monday evening.

On Sunday, an anonymous group put up fliers in ultra-Orthodox areas promising special “self-defense” equipment for those who planned to travel to Meron and feared police violence. The advertisement promised “helmets, pepper spray and tasers” to all who arrived at specific locations in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Beit Shemesh.

The unknown suppliers were also offering airsoft guns, smoke bombs and body cameras for a “subsidized price.” It was unclear whether these fliers were genuine, or served as a scare tactic.

At Meron, two young men recorded themselves attempting to cut holes in fences with wirecutters, in an effort to help others sneak into the area through forests and shrubbery.

Northern District police commander Meir Eliyahu said in a Sunday statement that police had identified “extremist actors” who were trying to “create provocations in order to incite the public. I am warning these actors: don’t do this.”

Last-minute reversal

Police announced their plans to scale back the Meron festivities just a day prior to Lag B’Omer. Preparations had been nearly completed ahead of the holiday before they became superfluous.

The decision was made in the wake of tightened restrictions put out by the IDF Home Front Command, limiting outdoor public gatherings to 200 people and indoor gatherings to 600 people, as opposed to the previous 1,500.

Nearly NIS 100 million ($34 million) was invested in renovating the Meron site for the anticipated influx of worshipers, according to the Ynet news outlet. Most of this infrastructure was taken down on Sunday.

Instead of a mass celebration, three officially approved bonfire lightings were scheduled to take place atop Mount Meron this year, each hosting 200 people.

Continuing an annual tradition at the site, the central bonfire was to be lit by the head of the Boyan Hasidic sect, Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer. A bonfire for the Sephardic Haredi public was to be lit by Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, and a lighting for Israel’s national religious camp was to be led by the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu.

Yaakov Haim Miller, one of the producers of the event, voiced dissatisfaction with the framework put forth by police to enforce the Home Front Command restrictions. Speaking to Kikar Hashabbat, an ultra-Orthodox news outlet, he warned that the very existence of a ceremony would motivate people to come, regardless of the rules put in place.

“There are people who will come at any price, even on unpaved routes and even under fire,” Miller told the outlet.

“If the state were really worried about a disaster, it would hermetically close the public transportation and the distant routes, and shut the lights on the mountain. The moment they put into place any sort of official framework, it attracts people to come,” he added.

Rabbi Eliezer Carlebach, whose family runs a yeshiva and guest house atop Mount Meron, told The Times of Israel he had opened a hotline for people who want those who are at the site to pray on their behalf.

Ahead of the holiday, Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef rebuked members of the ultra-Orthodox public who planned to travel to Meron.

“Preserving life overrides the entire Torah,” he said, according to a Rabbinate spokesperson. The rabbi stressed that Jewish law requires transgressing even Shabbat and Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, to safeguard human life.

“Now, if preserving life overrides Shabbat, would it not override Lag B’Omer?” he said, stressing how the Meron pilgrimage is not even a Torah commandment, but rather a tradition.

In 2021, a crowd crush killed 45 people and injured over 100 as they traversed a narrow walkway at the shrine, marking Israel’s deadliest peacetime civilian disaster to date.

Alternate ceremonies

This year’s changes mirrored the heavy restrictions imposed on Meron in 2024, during all-out war with Hezbollah, in which three small bonfire lightings were held at the site in parallel with ceremonies further from the northern border — in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.

With Meron ostensibly closed to the general public this year as well, two mass bonfire lighting ceremonies were scheduled to take place in Jerusalem Monday night.

One ceremony was set to be held in Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, which has long been a flashpoint for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The neighborhood is home to a tomb thought to be the resting place of the Second Temple-era high priest Shimon HaTzadik. Historically, it served as a less popular, but still frequented, pilgrimage site on Lag B’Omer.

In 2024, when Meron was closed, thousands thronged the streets of the neighborhood to mark Lag B’Omer, many visiting the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik under heavy police presence.

Another bonfire lighting will take place in Ezrat Torah, a Haredi neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. Leading the ceremony will be Rabbi Elimelech Biderman, an influential Hasidic figure who typically leads bonfire lightings atop Meron.

When authorities closed Meron two years ago, Biderman held a ceremony in Ramat Beit Shemesh, which drew around 40,000 people.

Rossella Tercatin contributed to this report.