Last update - 00:00 22/02/2007
Families of 2 teens killed at 1995 music festival to get NIS 4.75m
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Thursday that the families of two girls killed at a music festival in Arad in 1995 would be compensated NIS 4.75 million.
In June 1995, Na'ama Elkariv and Chen Yitzhak were trampled to death by a crowd at a concert given by the rock group Machina at the annual music festival in Arad.
The court ordered the festival's organizers - the Arad municipality, the Arad police, Migdal insurance company and Magen David Adom emergency medical services - to collectively compensate the victims' families. The court has not yet decided how much of the total sum each body would be obligated to pay, and therefore the families' attorneys fear the payment could be long delayed.
At the same 1995 concert, another teen, Itan Peled, was also killed. His family reached a NIS 280,000 settlement several years ago, but the Elkariv and Yitzhaki families continued the legal battle against those they held responsible for the tragedy.
On Thursday, Jerusalem District Court judge Miryam Mizrahi ruled that each family will receive NIS 1 million for "pain and suffering," and NIS 2.75 million will be divided between the families according to the potential income each girl could have earned had she lived, as well as respective medical expenses.
The prosecuting attorney who represented the two families welcomed the court's ruling, but added that the families, who have suffered greatly, expected the court to penalize the responsible parties with more than monetary fines, to befit the terrible negligence displayed at the event. The attorney said that he might appeal the ruling in light of the relatively light punishment. He added that though the state finally acknowledged its responsibility in the young girls' deaths, it had not assisted the families in any way since the tragedy.