Indictments are prepared against two officials of the Bnei Tzion mechina yeshiva following the horrific accident that led to the deaths of ten students from the school (Mechina) in 2018.

Ten students were killed in the horrific tragedy when flash floods swept them away in the Aravah region during a Bnei Tzion Mechina outgoing in Nachal Tzafit.

A teacher who was among those responsible for the students, Aviv Berdich, is facing an indictment of manslaughter while the school’s head, Yuval Kahan, is facing an indictment for causing deaths by negligence.

The indictments will be filed subject to a hearing, at a later date, to be determined by the State Attorney’s Office. The case against the counselor was closed because of lack of guilt, since the details of the investigation indicate that she had asked several times and even insisted on canceling the trip – but in the preparatory yeshiva’s officials ignored it.

The tour was supposed to take place in Nachal Tze’elim, but due to the closure of the site, the guide decided to transfer the location of the trip to Nachal Tamar and Nachal Tzafit, despite warnings of flooding in the area. In addition, the suspects were informed of “concrete information from the weather forecasting company hired by the Mechina for this purpose,” about the fear of flooding on this day, but they ignored it.

The indictments against the two read, “The suspects’ actions and omissions caused the death of ten members of the group and the severe injury of the two candidates to the pre-army preparatory course, due to their poor judgement, because the two men took an unreasonable risk of causing the grave consequences, in the hope of succeeding in preventing them.”

Attorney Zion Amir, who represents Kahan, said he was surprised by the apparent decision: “On the face of it, this is a baseless accusation from the factual and legal aspect. At the same time, I am convinced that the hearing is supposed to bring about a change in this decision.”

“It is bizarre that we are updated via the media. I would wait for an official announcement from the State Prosecutor’s Office” said Ella Balali, the mother of Gali Balali, who was killed in the disaster. If so, I would like to strengthen their hand. People in Israeli society forgot about the value of human life and what responsibility is, and such a decision only reinforces the fact that those who killed them must bear the consequences,” Balali told Walla News.

The mechina has closed its doors for the next year following the tragedy. Kahan, a well respected individual and a lt.-colonel in the IDF reserves, founded and headed the school but resigned his position following the tragedy.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)