The government committee charged with investigating the Meron disaster met Tuesday morning to hear testimonies.
Committee members will hear three witnesses on Tuesday: The director of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's gravesite, attorney Eli Freund; a member of the Committee of Five, Rabbi Avraham Freulich; and an additional eyewitness who watched the disaster unfold.
"We cannot continue in the current format for bonfire lightings," Freund told the committee. "Instead of creating the pressure of the bonfire lightings, we can leave one lighting on the mountain, maybe that of Boyan, and move the other bonfire lightings."
According to Freund, he was never invited to the meetings on the Lag Ba'omer preparations, and the responsibility lies entirely with the National Center for Holy Sites.
Freund testified that approximately one-and-a-half hours before the disaster occurred, it had been very crowded near the Boyan bonfire. He also said that he saw very problematic crowding.
"Police officers stood on a wall and pulled out babies, and then the district commander gave a whistle to open all the gates, and the bottleneck opened," he said. He added that next to him, women were crying and telling him that he saved their lives, and his own almost 21-year-old daughter was nearly crushed, and his wife searched for her for half an hour.