NEWS
Learning the Lessons of Meron: Improvements at the Kosel
by Yisrael Rosner
Preventing a [possible] future calamity: the Deputy Transportation Minister and head of the Chareidi Authority and the organization for Road Safety, Rabbi Uri Maklev, met with Jerusalem mayor Moshe Leon and the rabbi of the Kosel and Holy Sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, to examine ways to improve access to the Kosel during peak times so as to minimize the overcrowding which exists at such times.
Other bodies joined this meeting so as to view the subject in its full intricacies: professionals from the municipality, the Chareidi Authority, the Moriah company, a team of the master plan for transportation, commanders from the Israeli Police Department responsible for safety at the site, and Rabbi Dovid Zohar, member of the Jerusalem administration from the Degel HaTorah party and holding the office of municipal transportation.
Already at the beginning of the meeting which Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz initiated, Rabbi Uri Maklev emphasized the uniqueness of the Kosel to the various present bodies as a place to which thousands flock each day. He asked for the formation of plans to be implemented immediately which would improve access to transportation to the Kosel with a minimum of danger to the lives of the worshipers who come in droves especially on holy days when the danger is palpable.
Rabbi Rabinowitz stressed the complexity and sensitivity of such a holy site, and the need to improve its infrastructure in order to allow the entrance of worshipers to the Kosel area without pushing and congestion to the worshipers and visitors whose number grows by the day.
As the lesson learned from the terrible catastrophe which took place on Lag B'Omer at Meron, the high-ranking police chiefs studied very solemnly the safety programs put forward, while dismissing programs which could possibly endanger human lives. Rabbi Maklev's request that preference be given to the subject of public transportation and improvement of the existing infrastructure, which was approved, by bringing traffic supervisors on a permanent basis so as to assure smooth movement of all vehicles, public and otherwise, to the site.
Jerusalem Mayor Leon asked Rabbi Maklev for assistance in obtaining funding for infrastructure development at the entrance of the Kosel area. At this very meeting, he even ordered professional teams to expand the parking area for buses serving the public at the Dung Gate so as to expedite the flow of traffic and sidewalks for pedestrians to the site from which the Shechina has not budged.
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