The head of the Mossad's brother describes: "I pulled people out lifeless"
Rabbi Zohar Barnea talks about the connection between the disaster in Meron and the appointment of his brother Dedi Barnea to head the Mossad: "Dadi asked me to go up to Meron and pray that he would be the one to receive the appointment."
David Berger, in collaboration with Shuva Israel
27/01/2022
Thursday, 27 January 2022, 07:10
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"People around me were crushed to death" (Photo: Elhanan Kotler, Family newspaper)
Rabbi Zohar Barnea is the brother of Mossad chief Dedi Barnea. In an exposed interview, he talks about the connection between the Meron disaster in which 45 people perished and the appointment of his brother as head of the Mossad. Barnea stayed on Lag B'Omer on the "Death Stairs" near the Rashbi Zion and miraculously survived the disaster. According to him, he came to the place to pray for the success and request of his brother.
"I brought up to Meron early because of Dedi's request. D.'s appointment from the institution was then up for decision, whether he would accept the position, or it would be another candidate. Dedi asked me to go up to Meron and pray that he would receive the appointment. I did so happily," he told the newspaper. The ultra-Orthodox "family".
"We marched against the direction of traffic, at first there was the usual urgency," he recounts in an interview, "there is always an urgency, so I did not think anything special was happening. After a few meters we realized we could not go this way so we decided to turn around. "But then the pressure increased and increased. We know the density from previous years, but here it is a density that does not drain anywhere and the pressure only increases. We have not encountered such a thing."
Barnea goes on to describe in "Family": "I hear screams and screams and pressure, a man with his back to the railing shouted in my ear 'I can no longer!'. I took off my hat and just started waving at him, hoping the air would help him. My son stood next to me and we watched. Only then did I realize that we were no longer in a normal situation, but in danger of death. I looked around and realized that the people were not just complaining about the overcrowding, but were just getting rid of before my eyes.
"At this point I no longer saw my son. But I knew I had to first get the people out of the human pile lying on the stairs. I pulled people out one by one. Some of the people I picked up were already lifeless, others were still breathing and had to be rescued urgently."
"It is impossible to describe the prayers that my heart cried out to heaven in those moments, at the point where we stood and I did not see my son among the dead. I realized he had probably left the place. Only an hour later I was able to make telephone contact with my son-in-law. "I was traumatized and went straight to sleep. This is the moment when the adrenaline left me. Suddenly I felt a huge exhaustion like I had never felt before. Weakness spread throughout my body. I just fell for my place," he revealed.
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