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"You murdered us the children": A confrontation between the parents and the accused in the opening of the Nahal Tzafit disaster trial | Israel today

2019-12-11T10:41:08.019Z


Sentence


A year and a half since the heavy disaster that took the lives of nine girls and one boy, the families of those killed met for the first time the senior members of the "Bnei Zion" preparations, and made serious accusations. • Call the preparatory director Yuval Kahal: "Zero"

  • The victims of Nahal Tzfit (photos courtesy of the family)

In Be'er Sheva District Court, the trial of the two main defendants will begin today in the Nahal Tzafit disaster case. In the disaster, the lives of ten boys from the Bnei Zion preparatory community, who were on a trip and a survival mission, were boosted. The defendants are Yuval Kahan, director of the preparatory and spring Berdichev, who headed the educational program.

The Southern District Attorney's Office, in the opinion of the State Attorney, today indicted in Be'er Sheva District Court an indictment against Yuval Cahan, who headed the Bnei Zion Pre-Military Preparatory and against Aviv Berdichev, the former director of the preparatory educational program. The offenses of the dead were readily committed and caused serious injury, due to the responsibility for the deaths of 10 preparatory students and candidates to study, and the injuries of two of them, in the disaster that occurred in April 2018 in Nahal Tzafit.

The indictment was filed after the prosecutor's office informed the defendants that the state's attorney, Shai Nitzan, had decided to adopt the district attorney's recommendation, Alon Altman, and dismissed their arguments raised at the hearing. A notice of the decision was also given to the officials of the families of those killed.

The indictment, filed by attorneys Vadim Siegel and Dror Stork, stated that despite the obvious and immediate flood danger that was known to the defendants, and despite repeated warnings that came to their notice before and during the trip, including warnings from knowledgeable and expert experts on rainfall and flood hazards, The trip planned in the area and did not prevent campers from entering the creek channel, and especially into the narrow, rocky part of it. "In their prohibited acts and omissions, the defendants caused the deaths of ten members of the group and the serious injury of the two candidates to recruit, with ease, when they take an unreasonable risk of causing the said harsh results, hoping to succeed," the indictment states.

According to the indictment, in April 2018, during a formulation trip organized by the Bnei Zion Pre-Military Preparatory in Tel Aviv, while the preparatory candidates and some of its students marched in the narrow section of Nahal Tzafit, they were hit by a flood, which fell sharply down the stream .

As a result of the flood, eight of the preparations for the preparations were found and two apprentices in the preparatory work: Lake Levi, Ilan Bar Shalom, Ella Or, Gali Belli, Ma'in Barhum, Tzur Alfie, Rumi Cohen, Shani Shamir, Yael Sadan and Adi Raanan. The preparations were severely damaged.

The indictment shows that despite numerous warnings and warnings in the days leading up to the incident and even in the morning of the trip, because of the expected floods in the southern streams and the area where the trip was planned, which was to the full knowledge of the defendants prior to and after the trip, the defendants did not cancel the trip and insisted on staying.

Among the warnings and warnings indicated in the indictment:

1. It was brought to the attention of the defendant Kahan in the days leading up to the incident that, for fear of flooding, "all trips by the Ministry of Education in the areas of the floods were canceled," but he ignored this warning and wrote about this message "It is really uninteresting."

2. The defendants were informed of the professional opinion of the Deputy Commander of the Willow Rescue Unit, stating that "it is worth giving up this time. The event will be exceptional and different from what we know ... Do not take chances," but the defendants ignored his position.

3. One of the instructors in the preparatory department, who was responsible for preparing the trip, implored the defendants in the days prior to the incident not to hold the trip because she was "scared" of the flood, but the defendants ignored her warnings and concerns. Defendant Kahn wrote in the tour team's Wattsap group that "the only thing that can happen is that they will not go on a trip and see no flood."

4. The defendants were informed of concrete information from the MetaTech weather forecasting company, which was hired by the preparer to provide information about the weather, that on the day of the trip there was a severe fear of flooding in the area's rivers, where the campers were to travel, but the defendants ignored this information. The trip is fine.

As the indictment shows, a few days before the trip, the recruiting staff of the preparatory team decided to postpone the formation trip later. Defendant Kahn was dissatisfied with this decision and, instead of canceling the hike, requested that the campers bring rain gear, provide them with sheets, tents and dry clothing, sent reassuring messages to the group ignoring the expected danger, and wrote, among other things, that "Maximum flooding will be expected."

The indictment also reveals that the original hike was initially planned for Tsalim stream, but due to the closure of the arrival route to this stream, defendant Berdichev decided to change the hike to Tamar and Nahal Tzafit stream, although all flood warnings also referred to the area where these streams are located. The trip was planned for these rivers even though Berdichev had never hiked them before, although he did not know their route, although he or none of the hikers did not make any preparatory trip for them, and although on the eve of the disaster day, received a weather forecast, according to which Danger of flooding in the rivers.

On the morning of the disaster itself, defendant Berdichev received warnings from various sources about the fear of rainfall and flooding in the area where the hike was to take place. That morning, MetaTech said that, given the forecast, floods are expected, "this is not a day for outdoor activity." However, at no point did this defendant act to cancel the trip and direct him to continue his order.

Defendant Cahan, who was told on the day of the trip that the campers were traveling within the stream route, did nothing to prevent the hike from continuing, despite all the flood hazards and warnings, which were described in some of the group's correspondence as "death hazard."

Shortly before the group entered the Tzafit River channel, defendant Berdichev received a targeted alert, stating that it began to rain in this river's drainage basin. Instead of stopping the hike immediately due to this, the defendant instructed the campers to continue on entering the stream route. Defendant Kahn, who also received "real-time" information about the rainfall in the river's drainage basin and the expected danger to campers as a result, did nothing to stop the hike.

As a result of these failures, the group of preparatory candidates and their students entered the Tzafit Creek channel, reached the narrow cliff section of the stream, and at that stage was hit by a very heavy flood. As a result of the flood, ten of the applicants and their students were killed, and two other trainees were injured. Serious and hospitalized.

The remaining trainees and recruiters, who managed to take cover before the flood hit, were rescued by rescue forces, who were required to use rescue helicopters.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2019-12-11

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