"For the past four years I have been following Maayan's path in an attempt to seek justice. For four years we have not really lived, after our lives were turned upside down in a second, in one wave, in a completely unnecessary flood."
This is what Dorit Barhum, the mother of the late Maayan Barhum, who was killed in the Tzafit disaster, says in pain.
On April 26, 2018, Maayan was on a trip to Nahal Tzafit in the Negev with 24 young men and women, six students from the Bnei Zion preparatory school and 18 12th graders who wanted to study at the preparatory school, when the flood hit them. Nine girls and a boy perished in the disaster.
Hope and disillusionment
"I met Maayan at Boyer High School in Jerusalem. We were together in the same class, but on a trip to Poland in the 11th grade, the connection became very strong and we became good friends," recalls Sgt. E., commander of a classified unit in the Artillery Corps.
Despite the fact that Maayan lives in Jerusalem and A. lives in a locality near Beit Shemesh, the connection between them soon became close.
Responsibility on the shoulders.
E. and her soldiers, Photo: IDF Spokesman
"The day before Maayan went for a walk, we went to the bus stop together. She was really excited. The next day we talked in the morning and she sent me a picture. In retrospect, this was the last picture she sent me."
At noon, when Maayan went on a trip, the first news of a terrible event began to be published.
"They called us with a picture of a helicopter in the field, said something had happened in the south," says Dorit. "We did not know what we were talking about, we were fed by the media."
E. was in the same situation.
"I did not suspect anything. I received alerts from news sites about a trip caught in a flood, friends started asking when was the last time I talked to Maayan. I remember sitting for five hours in front of the TV. Each time they announced that they recognized someone, and it was not Maayan. "Maybe she was able to climb a rock."
The next day the hopes vanished.
Dorit: "They found her at one in the morning, on the wheels of a truck that was swept away in the direction of the Dead Sea. I lost my only girl, and we're just trying to lift ourselves up and not succeeding."
"Let them understand the responsibility"
Four years later, A. is expected to receive the President's Outstanding Medal on Independence Day - and browse with it.
"It was clear to me that I was taking this disaster forward, not coming to a spring that we would forget this disaster."
At the Boyer school, they built a solar courtyard in Maayan's name, and A. used to bring her warriors' subordinates there.
The courtyard of the sun in memory of Maayan Barhum, Photo: Courtesy of the family
The sun was the hallmark of Maayan, in the tattoo she wore and also tattooed by her mother, Dorit.
Sgt. A.: "We did not just choose to commemorate her with the sun - she was one huge smile.
It's now the second cycle in command, and every decision I make, whether it's food or navigation, is in the mirror of disaster.
"I want to perpetuate it, for people to remember, to recognize, to tell, to know that there is a responsibility on their shoulders - certainly in operational roles, so that every decision we make has implications for people's lives."
At the same time, Dorit is waging a struggle against the head of the mechina, Yuval Kahan, and the instructor, Aviv Berdichev, as part of the criminal proceedings against them in the Beer Sheva District Court.
"The trial is being conducted in terrible procrastination. These are two people sponsored by the mechina who sent ten children to horrible death. The feeling is that no one in the country cares about dragging their feet in the criminal process. We educated Maayan to fight for justice and correct injustices, but no one does it for us.
"I see a crash of the preparatory system in terms of values. Where is the mutual guarantee? There have since been three more events that could have ended in disaster. Nothing has been done to prevent the next disaster. Disregard for human life still exists."
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