SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 12 (JTA) — Anger and tension marked the first meeting here between the leaders of the Maccabi World Union and Australian Jews on last summer’s Maccabiah Games bridge tragedy. Speaker after speaker criticized the organizers of the Maccabiah Games at the meeting, which was attended by close to 150 members of the Australian Maccabiah team, their families, friends and communal leaders. There were also calls for officials of the international sports body to resign — pending a judicial inquiry. The union’s president, Ronnie Bakalarz, and its chairman, Uzi Netanel, maintained that they bore no responsibility for last July’s bridge collapse. Four Australian members of the Maccabiah team died and dozens were injured. In December, a Tel Aviv court indicted Yoram Eyal, the chairman of the Games’ Organizing Committee; Baruch Karagula and Yehoshua Ben-Ezra, the contractors; Micha Bar-Ilan, the bridge’s engineer; and, Adam Mishori, the head of Irgunit, the firm that subcontracted to Baruch and Karagula.
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