The district court in Be’er Sheva sentenced former Bnei Zion preparatory school principal Yuval Cohen and former educational manager Aviv Berdichev to seven years in prison on Tuesday.
Additionally, each of them was ordered to pay compensation to the families of the victims totaling 210,000 shekels. The prosecution requested to impose a harsher sentence of at least 12 years in prison on each of the two.
In the flash flood disaster in Nahal Tzafit in April 2018, nine girls and one boy were killed.
The decision on the sentence stated: “The negligence of the defendants was not momentary. Their negligence lasted for several hours. Each of the defendants had many opportunities to stop and did not do so. Yuval did not admit that he failed and took responsibility; on the contrary, he shifted responsibility, even if indirectly, onto others. His assumption of responsibility is merely a hollow shell, not true responsibility. Aviv also did not take responsibility but rather denied it and pointed at others. I found that they should receive a similar punishment.”
“The group of teenagers did not return from the trip and will not return. The section detailing the factual findings is lengthy and adopted most of the indictment’s findings. The defendants ignored many values, including the highest value in our legal system – the sanctity of life. There was no necessity to embark on the trip when warnings were issued against it.”
“One defendant decided to be silent, and when he heard the warnings he chose not to respond. The other took a group of young people who relied on him to Nahal Tzafit despite the warnings,” the decision stated.
“There remains reasonable doubt that Yuval internalized Aviv’s messages regarding Nahal Tzafit. Yuval was disconnected from the group for 13 hours. The first time he spoke with Aviv was after the disaster.”
“Even when he understood there was a potential danger, Yuval did not contact Aviv directly and did not check where he had gone. Yuval’s behavior on the day of the disaster shows that he did not speak up. He did not react as a principal should react, as he stated in his testimony. He did not conduct any relevant clarification when he learned of the trip. He failed to identify the danger after receiving a message at 11:30 that it would start drizzling at 12:00 and then at 3:00, even though he knew what the danger was.”
In response to the conviction, parents present in the courtroom burst into tears and criticized the lenient charge – causing death by negligence – instead of manslaughter due to recklessness as requested by the prosecution.
Hadar Alfi, whose son Tzur perished in the disaster, told ‘Kan News‘: “It’s a bitter disappointment. There are no words to describe the difficult feeling. How was it decided that they were not aware of the danger? What was emphasized here?”
Source link
