The collapsed lighting rig at Mount Herzl (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)
The Jerusalem District Court on Monday convicted two men of negligence in the 2012 death of a young army officer when a lighting rig collapsed in the capital’s Mount Herzl.
Engineer Oren Varshebski and safety consultant Yitzhak Tzuker were found liable for the death of Lieutenant Hila Betzaleli, a 20-year-old IDF officer from Mevasseret Zion, who was crushed to death when the lighting rig crashed down on her and other soldiers as they rehearsed for the official state Independence Day ceremony in the central parade ground. Seven other soldiers were injured in the incident.
The two will face deliberations on sentencing next week.
Hila Betzaleli poses at the Mount Herzl parade grounds, two hours before the tragedy in which she lost her life. (photo credit: Channel 2 News)
Last year two other officials were found responsible for the disaster. Elad Levi, the deputy CEO of Itzuv Bima stage design company, was handed a six-month sentence, while the company’s operations manager, Tomer Leonidze, received a seven-month sentence. Doron Levi, the CEO of the company, was acquitted on all charges.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
