On Thursday night, Israel’s Education and Defense Ministries clashed over who was responsible for the disaster in which 10 students from a pre-military preparatory course were killed in a flood in the Arava Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the WatsApp messages from the boys and girls who perished show that some have warned of the danger the group faced.
“I can’t believe I’m going out on a trip in this weather,” wrote one of the girls at the Bnei Zion preparatory program at 4:18 PM Wednesday. “It doesn’t make sense for us to go to a place with flooding everything, it’s tempting fate, we will die, I’m serious.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, don’t exaggerate,” was the response of the recipient, probably a family member, at 4:20 PM. “I assume they will use logic and will probably take you to a different places, and you’ll sleep in an enclosed place.”
One student who asked if the trip was still taking place despite the harsh weather conditions and the warnings of the authorities, received the message from the organizers: “Some updates regarding the trip on Wednesday: As some of you have noticed, on some of the days of the trip there may be rainy weather in the south. The trip, of course, is still taking place.”
The message went on to list the equipment the students were asked to bring along, with the reassuring message: “Don’t worry, we are well prepared for the trip, and the course has coordinated it with the appropriate authorities. It will be fun, wet, and full of great memories.”
At the beginning of the catastrophic event, the Education Ministry shirked responsibility, claiming that it did not supervise tours conducted by pre-military preparatory courses – that responsibility rests with the Defense Ministry that funds the course.
But, soon enough, the ministry realized that not all of the youths were course students, and that some of them were 12th graders who were going to enroll in the preparatory program only next year. Only then did the ministry start looking into who at the preparatory program was authorized to take the kids out on that disastrous trip.
The Defense Ministry, for its part, issued a statement saying it was only responsible for funding the course – the rest belongs to the Education Ministry.