No prison time for 2 men responsible for Mount Herzl death of IDF officer
Parents react with fury as engineer, safety consultant get community service for negligently causing 2012 death of Lt. Hila Betzaleli, 20, when lighting rig collapsed
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday handed down lighter-than-expected sentences to two engineers responsible for the 2012 death of a young IDF officer when a lighting truss collapsed at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl site during a rehearsal for the Independence Day ceremony slated to take place that year.
Oren Warshavsky, the engineer for the site, and Yitzhak Tocker, the safety consultant, were convicted of negligently causing the death of Lt. Hila Betzaleli, who was killed when the massive metal structure fell on her and seven other soldiers. All eight sustained injuries; only Betzaleli’s were fatal.
Tocker was sentenced on Tuesday to four months’ imprisonment that he could serve in community service work outside the prison, while Warshavsky was sentenced to 400 hours of community service, with the court noting his fragile mental state, according to the Ynet news site.
Betzaleli’s parents responded angrily after hearing the light sentences on Tuesday.
Mother Sigalit cried out in the courtroom, shouting, “I don’t believe it! Six years I’ve been silent, sitting on this stinking bench [in the courtroom]. Let me die, take me, I want to be done with this world.”
She added: “A 20-year-old girl wanted to learn medicine. Who cared about that? My Hila died for nothing. This was greed, they wanted ‘the biggest ceremony,’ but the world moves on and only my Hila pays a price. How are they not fit for prison?”
Yaron Betzaleli, Hila’s father, yelled at the defendants, “Scum, you killed our daughter!”
Before the sentencing, Yaron told reporters that the family was “asking for and wants to see them go to prison and think about what they did. This happened because of greed. Three months ago, Mr. Tocker took a job in Ashdod, and Warshavsky is also working. ”
Last month, during a pre-sentencing hearing, the Betzalelis argued in the courtroom that a meaningful sentence would save lives by sending a message that there would be a price to pay for negligence.
The investigation by police and prosecutors lasted almost three years, after which indictments were filed against seven people and a company that helped produce the ceremony — Itzuv Bama, which built the lighting structure.
The indictments noted that the people employed to build the structure did not have the professional expertise required for the job, and that it was carried out without the mandated planning and oversight by qualified engineers. The result: company employees slapped together a makeshift anchoring system that, once the truss was lifted into place, collapsed almost immediately.
Two officials from Itzuv Bama were sentenced to six- and seven-month prison sentences in a December 2016 plea bargain.
The Times of Israel Community.